Boy · Old English
Wilfred
Say it: WIL-fred
Meaning
From Old English wil 'will, desire' and frith 'peace'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
An Anglo-Saxon saint's name revived in the 19th century; Scott's Ivanhoe hero was Wilfred.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1910s
In the United States
- 29,382 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1917, about 1 in 1,200 boys
- 27 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age700 to 1100
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Wilfrid
Famous bearers
- Saint Wilfrid, bishop
- Wilfred Owen, war poet
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Anglo-Saxon charters, chronicles and church records
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.