How popular is the baby name Walter 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 Walter.

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Popularity of the baby name Walter


Posts that mention the name Walter

First names from King Henry III’s fine rolls (1200s)

Henry III of England
Henry III of England

I’ve got some 13th-century English names for you today!

They come from the fine rolls of Henry III of England (1216–1272).

“Fine rolls” were basically financial records. They kept track of money offered to the king in return for concessions and favors. King Henry III wasn’t the first to keep them, but they “expand[ed] considerably in size and content during Henry’s reign.”

For a time, the Henry III Fine Rolls Project — the aim of which was to “democratize the contents” of Henry III’s fine rolls “by making them freely available in English translation to everyone via a website” — hosted a sortable database of all the given names in the rolls. While that database was available, I used it to create lists of the most-mentioned male and female names. (All the names are still online, but they’re no longer sortable.)

The rankings below — which cover a wide range of birth years, and a small segment of society — aren’t the same as the single-year, society-wide baby name rankings we’re accustomed to. But they do give us a general idea of which names were the most popular during the 1200s.

Of the 8,423 male names in the fine rolls, these were the most popular:

  1. William (1,217 mentions)
  2. John (669)
  3. Richard (495)
  4. Robert (434)
  5. Henry (376)
  6. Ralph (365)
  7. Thomas (351)
  8. Walter (346)
  9. Roger (337)
  10. Hugh (297)
  11. Geoffrey (261)
  12. Simon (218)
  13. Adam (200)
  14. Nicholas, Peter (180 each)
  15. Gilbert (157)
  16. Alan (110)
  17. Phillip (109)
  18. Reginald (88)
  19. Stephen (83)
  20. Elias (66)
  21. Alexander (65)
  22. Osbert (52)
  23. Eustace (44)
  24. Andrew, Matthew (42 each)
  25. Ranulf (40)

Other names on the men’s list: Hamo, Fulk, Payn, Waleran, Drogo, Engeram, Amfrid, Ratikin, Walkelin, Bonefey, Fulcher, Hasculf, Herlewin, Joldwin, Lefsi, Marmaduke, Orm, Albizium, Cocky, Deulobene, Gwenwynwyn, Markewart.

Of the 1,314 female names in the fine rolls, these were the most popular:

  1. Alice (140 mentions)
  2. Matilda (138)
  3. Agnes (76)
  4. Margaret (69)
  5. Joan (62)
  6. Isabella (60)
  7. Emma (37)
  8. Beatrice (34)
  9. Mabel (33)
  10. Cecilia (32)
  11. Christiana (30)
  12. Hawise (29)
  13. Juliana (27)
  14. Sibyl (25)
  15. Rose (21)
  16. Sarra (16)
  17. Helewise (15)
  18. Avice, Eleanor, Eva, Lucy (14 each)
  19. Leticia (13)
  20. Felicia (12)
  21. Isolda, Margery, Petronilla (11 each)
  22. Ascelina, Edith (10 each)
  23. Phillippa (9)
  24. Amice, Elena, Katherine, Mary, Sabina (8 each)
  25. Basilia, Muriel (7 each)

Other names on the women’s list: Albrea, Amabilia, Eustachia, Idonea, Egidia, Millicent, Amphelisa, Avegaya, Barbata, Comitessa, Frethesenta, Wulveva, Alveva, Dervorguilla, Deulecresse, Elizabeth (just 1!), Flandrina, Oriolda.

A researcher working on the project reported that, of all the men mentioned in the rolls, 14.4% were named William and 7.9% were named John. She also noted that, just like today, the female names showed a greater amount of diversity:

Compared with 57.8 per cent of the men, only 51.8 per cent of the women had one of the top ten names. And 9.44 per cent of the women had names that occurred only once, whereas 3.38 per cent of the men had names that occurred only once.

See any names you like?

Sources: The Henry III Fine Rolls by David Carpenter, The Henry III Fine Rolls Project, ‘William’ most popular medieval name – King’s College London
Image: Henry III (13th-century illustration)

[Latest update: June 2023]

What turned Frosty into a baby name in 1950?

Sheet music for the song "Frosty the Snow Man" (1950)
“Frosty the Snow Man”

The unusual baby name Frosty has appeared in the U.S. baby name data just once so far:

  • 1952: unlisted
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: 6 baby boys named Frosty [debut]
  • 1949: unlisted
  • 1948: unlisted

What inspired this sudden interest in Frosty?

The Christmas song “Frosty the Snow Man,” believe it or not. Written and composed by Steve Nelson and Walter “Jack” Rollins, it was first published in 1950.

The lyrics tell the story of a snowman named Frosty (with “a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal”) who magically comes to life when an “old silk hat” is placed on his head.

Gene Autry was one of the first artists to record it, and his version saw the greatest success during the 1950 holiday season. According to Billboard magazine, Autry’s “Frosty” peaked at #2 on the Best Selling Children’s Records chart for several weeks in a row at the end of 1950 and the beginning of 1951. More importantly, it peaked at #7 on the Best Selling Pop Singles chart during the first week of 1951. (The rankings that week were “based on reports received December 27, 28 and 29.”)

Other recordings of “Frosty the Snow Man” available during the 1950 holiday season included versions by Nat “King” Cole, Red Foley, Roy Rogers, Vaughn Monroe, Curt Massey, Guy Lombardo, Dick “Two-Ton” Baker, Harry Babbitt, and Jimmy Durante.

What are your thoughts on Frosty as a baby name? Do you like it more or less than Bimbo?

P.S. The biggest hit of Gene Autry’s career? “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” released just ahead of the 1949 holiday season. (Incidentally, the name Rudolph saw peak usage around the time Italian-born silent film actor Rudolph Valentino died in 1926, at age 31.)

Sources:

  • “The Billboard Music Popularity Charts.” Billboard 6 Jan. 1951: 16.
  • “The Billboard Music Popularity Charts.” Billboard 30 Dec. 1950: 10.
  • Frosty the Snowman – Wikipedia
  • SSA

Image: “Frosty the Snow Man” sheet music (Smithsonian)

How did celebutante Brenda Frazier influence baby names in 1939?

Debutante Brenda Diana Duff Frazier (1921-1982)
Brenda Frazier

Brenda Frazier (b. 1921) was an American debutante who rose to fame toward the end of the Great Depression. She wasn’t from an old-money family, but she did have a $4 million trust fund, thanks to her paternal grandfather.

By the time Frazier was ready to make her debut, most of the established charity group balls and cotillions — even the more down-market ones — rejected her application.

So Brenda’s overbearing, “embarrassingly nouveau riche” mother planned an extravagant coming-out party. It was held at the Ritz-Carlton in December of 1938, and it attracted a remarkable amount of media attention. In anticipation of the event, LIFE made Brenda a cover girl in mid-November.

The baby name Brenda was already on the rise, but all the buzz around Brenda Frazier kicked the name into high gear in 1939:

  • 1942: 7,239 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 40th]
  • 1941: 6,331 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 41st]
  • 1940: 5,442 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 42nd]
  • 1939: 2,756 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 86th]
  • 1938: 676 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 244th]
  • 1937: 233 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 423rd]
  • 1936: 163 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 511th]
  • 1935: 132 baby girls named Brenda [rank: 556th]

This was also the year that gossip columnist Walter Winchell, inspired by Frazier’s “ubiquity, her hustle, her fame,” coined the term celebutante — a portmanteau of celebrity and debutante — to describe Brenda specifically.

Over the next few years, Frazier stayed in the spotlight by appearing in various magazine advertisements, such as this Studebaker Land Cruiser ad from early 1941:

Brenda Frazier featured in a magazine ad for Studebaker cars (Jan. 1941)
Brenda Frazier in magazine ad

(Decades later, she wrote: “I found it amusing that I should be paid to recommend a particular make of car — I, who had never been permitted to drive an automobile and went everywhere by taxi or by chauffeured limousine.”)

By the middle of the century, the name Brenda was one of the most popular baby names in the nation. It ranked among the top 20 girl names from 1948 all the way to 1964.

Graph of the usage of the baby name Brenda in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Brenda

By that time, though, Brenda Frazier’s popularity had long since waned. She went on to live a difficult life (which included eating disorders, drug and alcohol addictions, two divorces, and multiple suicide attempts) before passing away “a virtual recluse” in 1982.

In 2007, New York Magazine ranked the top 20 socialites of all time. Frazier came in 16th.

P.S. Other debutantes who’ve influenced U.S. baby names include Cobina Wright, Jr., Deyanne O’Neil Farrell, Oona O’Neill, Sharman Douglas, Theonita Cox, and Gamble Benedict.

Sources:

Top image: Clipping from the cover of Life magazine (14 Nov. 1938)

Baby name story: Reagan

Mr. and Mrs. Scott Bush of Dallas welcomed a baby boy on November 3, 1980 — the day before the presidential election. They named him Reagan, making his full name Reagan Bush.

“We felt it was a unique opportunity to name him after two great Americans,” said Scott Bush.

The birth prevented Mrs. Bush from getting to the polls, but Mr. Bush voted — “For Reagan, of course.”

Ronald Reagan and George Bush ended up defeating Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale by a wide margin that year. No doubt this pleased the Bush family of Dallas very much.

Source: “Child Named for GOP Ticket.” Rushville Republican 8 Nov. 1980: 1.