Wilford

Where Wilford comes from

Wilford 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.

Along the way
  1. 1807
    Wilford Woodruff born
    President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #403 among boys — 18 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1911
    Peak, #328
    69 babies named Wilford — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1934
    Wilford Brimley born
    American actor and singer
  5. 1973
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,736.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Wilford Brimley · American actor and singer, 1934–2020
  • Wilford Woodruff · President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1807–1898
  • Wilford Leach · American film director, 1929–1988
  • Wilford Horace Smith · African-American lawyer, 1863–1926
  • Wilford Bacon Hoggatt · American naval officer and sixth Governor of the District of Alaska, 1865–1938

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.