# Wilbur (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/wilbur/  
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 | English |
| Meaning | “will”, “fortress” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 57,196 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 56,906 / 290 (1% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 1,042, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From an Old English female given name Wilburg, from wil (“will”) + burh (“fortress”).

## 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | 9 | 3,337 |
| 1931 | 8 | 3,488 |
| 1932 | 5 | 5,077 |
| 1933 | 9 | 3,104 |
| 1934 | 6 | 4,275 |
| 1935 | 8 | 3,423 |
| 1936 | 11 | 2,685 |
| 1937 | 9 | 3,142 |
| 1940 | 6 | 4,335 |
| 1943 | 7 | 4,188 |
| 1944 | 5 | 5,230 |
| 1945 | 5 | 5,221 |
| 1953 | 5 | 6,484 |
| 1954 | 7 | 5,141 |
| 1959 | 5 | 7,185 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 21 | 4,648 |
| 2012 | 15 | 5,979 |
| 2013 | 22 | 4,456 |
| 2014 | 23 | 4,383 |
| 2015 | 30 | 3,679 |
| 2016 | 25 | 4,192 |
| 2017 | 28 | 3,883 |
| 2018 | 28 | 3,882 |
| 2019 | 37 | 3,192 |
| 2020 | 21 | 4,688 |
| 2021 | 25 | 4,233 |
| 2022 | 30 | 3,768 |
| 2023 | 33 | 3,560 |
| 2024 | 42 | 2,998 |
| 2025 | 27 | 4,040 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 23 | 1,124 |
| 2012 | 32 | 927 |
| 2013 | 44 | 730 |
| 2014 | 41 | 765 |
| 2015 | 69 | 553 |
| 2016 | 65 | 571 |
| 2017 | 75 | 522 |
| 2018 | 63 | 584 |
| 2019 | 95 | 429 |
| 2020 | 83 | 473 |
| 2021 | 92 | 450 |
| 2022 | 76 | 515 |
| 2023 | 62 | 593 |
| 2024 | 70 | 545 |
| 2025 | 67 | 578 |

## People named Wilbur

- Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr., American pharmacologist (1915–1974)
- Wilbur Scoville, American pharmacist (1865–1942)
- Wilbur Thompson, American track and field athlete, gold medal in shot put at the 1948 Summer Olympics (1921
- Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (1867-1912)
- Wilbur Ware, American jazz musician (1923-1979)
- Theodore Wilbur Anderson, American statistician (1918–2016)
- Wilbur Higby, American actor (1867–1934)
- Wilbur Olin Atwater, American agricultural chemist (1844–1907); developer of the respiration calorimeter
- Wilbur Sweatman, American musician (1882–1961)
- Wilbur de Paris, American musician (1900–1973)
- Wilbur Schramm, American writer, journalist, scholar (1907–1987)
- Wilbur Wood, American baseball player (1941–2026)

## 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.