Walter

Where Walter comes from

A Germanic name, from Middle English Walter, from Old Northern French Waltier, from Frankish *Waltheri (compare Old High German Waltheri, which see for more details), from Proto-West Germanic *Waldahari, from Proto-Germanic *Waldaharjaz, from *waldą (“ruler”) + *harjaz (“army, host”). Related to Old English Waldhere. Compare herald and Harold, in which these elements are reversed.
— Wiktionary's entry for Walter
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #13 among boys — 1,755 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1914
    Peak, #10
    8,962 babies named Walter — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #83.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes

No widely known Walter turns up in the encyclopedias yet — the name is still all theirs to make famous.

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.