How popular is the baby name Winfield in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Winfield.
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The presidential election of 1880 involved two men with “-field” names: Republican candidate James A. Garfield, and Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock.
The nominees were chosen in June of 1880, the votes were cast in November, and Garfield was declared the winner — but it was a close race. (“Among presidents who won the popular vote, Garfield’s margin of victory remains the narrowest in history.”)
And the closeness of the race was mirrored in the resultant increases in usage of the baby names “Garfield” and “Winfield” in 1880. (Unfortunately, it’s hard to gauge how much higher this usage was than usual because the SSA data only goes back to 1880.)
Garfield
According to the SSA data, the name Garfield was the 111th most popular baby name in the U.S in 1880. It rose even higher the next year — no doubt because James A. Garfield was the winner of the election, though perhaps also because he was assassinated in September — a mere 6 months after being sworn in. After that, the name saw a steep drop in usage.
Here’s the data, both from the Social Security Administration and the Social Security Death Index:
Boys named Garfield, SSA
People named Garfield, SSDI
1883
49 (rank: 222nd)
48
1882
69 (rank: 190th)
91
1881
147* (rank: 88th)
153
1880
122 (rank: 111th)
141
1879
?
24
1878
?
4
*Peak usage
The surname Garfield originally referred to a triangle-shaped field. The Old English word gara, meaning “triangular piece of land,” is related to gar, “spear” (as spearheads were triangular).
Winfield
The SSA data shows that the name Winfield was the 122nd most popular baby name in the U.S. in 1880. Unlike Garfield, though, it began slipping in 1881 — right after Winfield Scott Hancock lost the election.
Here’s the data, again both from the SSA and the SSDI:
Boys named Winfield, SSA
People named Winfield, SSDI
1883
46 (rank: 236th)
58
1882
39 (rank: 276th)
57
1881
65 (rank: 183rd)
65
1880
108 (rank: 122nd)
106
1879
?
32
1878
?
16
Winfield Scott Hancock* was a lifelong military commander, so it’s fitting that he was named in honor of an earlier military commander: Winfield Scott. (Scott’s first name was his maternal grandmother’s maiden name.)
The surname Winfield could refer to any of various locations in England. Depending upon the specific location, the Old English first element of the name could be wynn, meaning “meadow, pasture”; wince, short for hleapwince, “lapwing“; weoh, “(pre-Christian) temple”; or Wiga, a personal name derived from wig, “war.”
Which of these two candidate names, Garfield or Winfield, do you prefer? Why?
Sources:
Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Want a boy name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?
I looked through all the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:
Alaric (48 baby boys)
Alban (12)
Aldous (11)
Aldric (7)
Alphonse (20)
Archibald (14)
Astor (5)
Augustin (50)
Balthazar (13)
Barclay (6)
Barnabas (8)
Bartholomew (19)
Booker (22)
Chadwick (34)
Cyril (41)
Clancy (14)
Claude (44)
Clement (34)
Crispin (21)
Darcy (15)
Dirk (40)
Doyle (10)
Ernst (6)
Ferdinand (20)
Garrick (42)
Giles (20)
Gregor (14)
Griffith (18)
Grover (9)
Gustaf (7); Gustav (29)
Horatio (10)
Hubert (46)
Ignatius (49)
Isidore (7)
Kermit (6)
Lambert (6)
Laird (17)
Laurence (48)
Laurent (9)
Leander (48)
Leith (7)
Lemuel (50)
Lowell (29)
Maxfield (22)
Newton (14)
Nicanor (8)
Norbert (9)
Norris (21)
Ogden (13)
Orson (33)
Osborn (5); Osborne (7)
Oswald (18)
Pascal (25)
Percival (13)
Peregrine (9)
Piers (16)
Regis (10)
Remis (11)
Roscoe (47)
Rudolph (44)
Rufus (39)
Rupert (8)
Sanford (6)
Seymour (6)
Sherman (40)
Sinclair (8)
Tavish (16)
Thane (48)
Tobiah (14)
Walton (14)
Warner (48)
Watson (42)
Webster (8)
Weldon (27)
Werner (11)
Wilbert (42)
Wilbur (20)
Winfield (7)
Winfred (7)
Winslow (10)
York (5)
Zebulon (25)
Zeno (13)
(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Laurence is rare, but Lawrence is moderately popular.)
The brief Spanish-American War (1898), which began in April and ended in August, inspired hundreds of patriotic parents in the U.S. to choose war-inspired baby names.
Maine & Havana
One of the events that led to war was the explosion of the USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana Harbor on February 15. The explosion killed more than 260 men. Many people in the U.S. blamed the explosion on Spain.
The baby names Maine and Havana both debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1898.
1900: unlisted
1899: unlisted
1898: 9 baby girls named Maine [debut] (plus 5 more named Mayne)
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
Maine was a one-hit wonder in the data — a rarity that never returned — but Havana returned to the data dozens of times since.
1900: unlisted
1899: unlisted
1898: 8 baby girls named Havana [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
The baby name Cuba also saw a spike in usage that year:
1900: 8 baby girls named Cuba
1899: 14 baby girls named Cuba (rank: 884th)
1898: 29 baby girls named Cuba (rank: 597th)
1897: 9 baby girls named Cuba
1896: unlisted
According to U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) data — which is more comprehensive than the SSA data for this time period — 25 babies were named Maine, 12 were named Havana, and 79 were named Cuba in 1898.
Dewey & Manila
War was formally declared on April 25. On May 1, the Battle of Manila Bay took place in the Philippines. The U.S. fleet, under the command of Commodore George Dewey, defeated Spain.
Usage of the name Dewey spiked in 1898, both for boys and for girls:
Boys named Dewey
Girls named Dewey
1900
345 (rank: 75th)
9
1899
499 (rank: 39th)
24 (rank: 632nd)
1898
1,115 (rank: 19th)
104 (rank: 305th)
1897
158 (rank: 111th)
13 (rank: 904th)
1896
63 (rank: 224th)
.
Impressively, Dewey reached the boys’ top 20 in 1898. The spelling variants Dewie and Dewy also debuted that year.
Going back to the SSDI, we see even higher numbers — 6,708 babies named Dewey, 36 named Dewie, and 1 named Dewy in 1898.
We even see evidence of Dewey’s spike on the U.S. Census of 1920:
1910s: over 4,300 people named Dewey were born
1900s: over 11,000 people named Dewey were born
1890s: over 12,100 people named Dewey were born
1880s: over 200 people named Dewey were born
1870s: over 100 people named Dewey were born
An article in the Reading Eagle in 1899 listed ten local babies named for George Dewey, and another article I spotted from decades later joked about starting a George Dewey namesake club.
We see a similar (though less pronounced) spike of in the usage of Manila for baby girls:
1900: 10 baby girls named Manila
1899: 34 baby girls named Manila (rank: 512th)
1898: 104 baby girls named Manila (rank: 306th) [peak usage]
Here are six more war-related names that debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1898.
The baby name Hobson was inspired by Richmond Pearson Hobson, prisoner of war in Cuba. (Hobson was the top boy-name debut of 1898, in fact.)
1900: 13 baby boys named Hobson (rank: 713th)
1899: 15 baby boys named Hobson (rank: 511th)
1898: 38 baby boys named Hobson (rank: 311th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
According to the SSDI, at least 161 babies were named Hobson that year.
(Hobson was a handsome Southerner who became a national celebrity following his month-long imprisonment. He became well known for kissing pretty young women as he toured the country. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch jokingly called him “the champion kisser of the universe.”)
The baby name Admiral was the rank of many of the men (e.g. Admiral Dewey, Admiral Sampson, Admiral Schley) who played a part in the war — Dewey especially.
1900: 18 baby boys named Admiral (rank: 579th)
1899: 13 baby boys named Admiral (rank: 549th)
1898: 25 baby boys named Admiral (rank: 394th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
According to the SSDI, at least 154 babies were named Admiral.
The baby name Shafter was inspired by army general William Rufus Shafter, who had command of the U.S. forces in Cuba during the war.
1900: 8 baby boys named Shafter
1899: unlisted
1898: 14 baby boys named Shafter (rank: 604th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
This was the first and only time the name Shafter landed in the U.S. top 1,000. According to the SSDI, at least 58 babies were named Shafter.
The baby name Maceo was inspired by Cuban revolutionary Antonio Maceo, “one of the outstanding guerrilla leaders in nineteenth century Latin America. (He died in late 1896, actually.)
1900: 8 baby boys named Maceo
1899: 9 baby boys named Maceo (rank: 760th)
1898: 13 baby boys named Maceo (rank: 621st) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
According to the SSDI, at least 34 babies were named Maceo.
The baby name Schley was inspired by Winfield Scott Schley, hero of the Battle of Santiago Bay.
1900: unlisted
1899: unlisted
1898: 10 baby boys named Schley (rank: 737th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
Like Maine, it was a one-hit wonder in the SSA data, and, like Shafter, it was in the top 1,000 just once. According to the SSDI, at least 39 babies were named Schley.
(Winfield Scott Schley — just like Winfield Scott Hancock — had been named in honor of General Winfield Scott (1786-1866), who was a family friend. Scott became Commanding General of the U.S. Army two years after Schley was born.)
Finally, the baby name Philippina, possibly inspired by the Philippines, was another one-hit wonder the year of the war:
1900: unlisted
1899: unlisted
1898: 5 baby girls named Philippina [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
Interestingly, only single Philippina is accounted for in the SSDI data.
Sources:
“Berks Babies Named in Honor of Dewey.” Reading Eagle 30 Apr. 1899: 4.
“Commodore Schley and His Deeds.” Milwaukee Journal 25 Feb. 1898: 3.
I was just reading The Political Graveyard’s cool list of Politicians Named for Other Politicians. Many of the politicians on the list were named for U.S. presidents, but others were named for figures who aren’t as well-known today. Some examples:
67 politicians were named after Henry Clay (1777-1852).
48 politicians were named after DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828).
43 politicians were named after Winfield Scott* (1786-1866).
21 politicians were named after Abraham Gallatin (1761-1849).
18 politicians were named after Francis Marion (1732-1795).
17 politicians were named after John Jay (1745-1829).
17 politicians were named after John Marshall (1755-1835).
16 politicians were named after Patrick Henry (1736-1799).
14 politicians (and the term “gerrymander”) were named after Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814).
13 politicians were named after Edward Everett (1794-1865).
7 politicians were named after John Calhoun (1782-1850).
Some of those numbers are impressive. Makes me wonder how many baby boys nationwide were named after these men.
*Winfield Scott lost to Franklin Pierce in the 1852 presidential election. One of his namesakes, Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886), lost to James Garfield in the 1880 presidential election. Not a lucky name for White House hopefuls, I’d say.
[Latest update: June 2023]
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