How Many People Are Named Waldo?
people named Waldo are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 235,227 people in the US has this name
Based on 5,722 babies named Waldo in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
💎💎 Very Rare
Peak Year
174 births
Trend
Stable (last 10 years)
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
Originally a short form of Germanic names containing the element wald meaning "rule". In the Middle Ages this name became the basis for a surname. Its present use in the English-speaking world is usually in honour of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), an American poet and author who wrote on transcendentalism. He was (probably) named after the 12th-century Christian radical Peter Waldo, who was from Lyons in France. Though Waldo and his followers, called the Waldensians, were declared heretics at the time, they were later admired by Protestants.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
All of the babies given the name Waldo in the records were boys.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Waldo alive today is about 55 years old, and 49% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 36 and 74 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Waldo first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 1915, to 174 babies. In 2025, 6 babies got the name.
Babies given the name each year, 1880 to 2025
🏆 Rank History
Waldo has never been one of the 100 most popular boys' names. Its best rank was #347, in 1881. In 2025 it ranked #11,902.
| Boys | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #11,902 |
| Best rank | #347 (1881) |
| Years in the top 100 | None |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #530 in the 1920s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Waldo alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Waldo were born in California than in any other state: about 86 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Waldo was given 3.7 times as often in Minnesota, 2.8 times in Iowa and 2.4 times in Ohio.
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