# Ward (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/ward/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “son of the poet” |
| Pronunciation | /wɔɹd/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 15,124 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 15,026 / 98 (1% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 25, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

* As an English surname, from the noun ward and related cognates such as warden, guard etc. * As an Irish surname, reduced from McWard, from mac an bard (“son of the poet”). * As a Jewish surname, adapted from Warshawski, named after Warsaw. Comparable to Warszawski. * As a French surname, Americanized from Guerin.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1916 | 5 | 5,142 |
| 1928 | 5 | 5,409 |
| 1957 | 5 | 6,988 |
| 2015 | 12 | 9,455 |
| 2016 | 6 | 16,122 |
| 2017 | 9 | 11,570 |
| 2018 | 10 | 10,510 |
| 2019 | 13 | 8,578 |
| 2022 | 5 | 17,610 |
| 2023 | 6 | 15,074 |
| 2024 | 8 | 12,084 |
| 2025 | 14 | 7,863 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 17 | 5,416 |
| 2012 | 25 | 4,128 |
| 2013 | 30 | 3,575 |
| 2014 | 30 | 3,612 |
| 2015 | 27 | 3,978 |
| 2016 | 48 | 2,622 |
| 2017 | 44 | 2,795 |
| 2018 | 40 | 2,991 |
| 2019 | 33 | 3,489 |
| 2020 | 47 | 2,687 |
| 2021 | 44 | 2,859 |
| 2022 | 54 | 2,559 |
| 2023 | 43 | 2,945 |
| 2024 | 36 | 3,329 |
| 2025 | 44 | 2,877 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5 | 3,970 |
| 2024 | 3 | 5,891 |
| 2025 | 3 | 5,927 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 4 | 2,501 |
| 2021 | 3 | 4,789 |
| 2022 | 3 | 4,789 |
| 2024 | 4 | 4,270 |

## People named Ward

- Ward Bond, American actor (1903–1960)
- Pendleton Ward, American animator
- Ward Kimball, American animator (1914-2002)
- Ward Horton, American actor
- Ward Moore, American writer (1903–1978)
- Ward Crane, American actor (1890–1928)
- Ward Goodenough, American anthropologist (1919-2013)
- Robert Ward Johnson, American politician (1814-1879)
- Ward Pétré, Belgian speed skater
- Henry Ward Ranger, American artist (1858-1916)
- Ward Swingle, American jazz singer (1927–2015)
- Ward Greene, American novelist, journalist and comic strip writer

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.