Wally

Where Wally comes from

Wally hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1910
    First appearance
    #1,589 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1923
    Wally Schirra born
    American astronaut
  3. 1959
    Peak, #575
    185 babies named Wally — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1961
    Wally Pfister born
    American cinematographer and film director
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #844.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Wally Schirra · American astronaut, 1923–2007
  • Wally Pfister · American cinematographer and film director, born 1961
  • Wally Hickel · Governor of Alaska, United States Secretary of the Interior, 1919–2010
  • Wally Cox · American actor, 1924–1973
  • Wally Masur · Australian tennis player, born 1963

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.