Girl Names Starting With W
The letter W gives girls 50 charted names in the 2025 SSA data, and the most popular of them is Willow, with 4,763 babies. The table spans ranks #44 to #5,090, down to 26 births for Wyllow.
| Rank | Name | Babies |
|---|---|---|
| #44 | Willow | 4,763 |
| #159 | Wrenley | 1,858 |
| #231 | Wren | 1,331 |
| #358 | Wrenlee | 851 |
| #422 | Willa | 742 |
| #426 | Winter | 732 |
| #457 | Wynter | 676 |
| #475 | Winnie | 646 |
| #627 | Winona | 466 |
| #677 | Whitley | 420 |
| #685 | Wrenleigh | 414 |
| #923 | Winifred | 284 |
| #1,028 | Waverly | 244 |
| #1,046 | Whitney | 238 |
| #1,169 | Winslow | 199 |
| #1,205 | Wrenly | 189 |
| #1,347 | Wendy | 165 |
| #1,483 | Wyatt | 145 |
| #1,517 | Wilhelmina | 141 |
| #1,524 | Winry | 140 |
| #1,709 | Wynn | 120 |
| #1,806 | Wateen | 112 |
| #1,832 | Winsley | 110 |
| #1,926 | Wesley | 101 |
| #1,961 | Walker | 99 |
| #2,353 | Weslie | 78 |
| #2,386 | Weslynn | 76 |
| #2,435 | Westlynn | 74 |
| #2,540 | Winnifred | 70 |
| #2,689 | Wylie | 65 |
| #2,750 | Wynonna | 63 |
| #2,818 | Winslie | 61 |
| #2,819 | Wisdom | 61 |
| #2,820 | Wynona | 61 |
| #2,893 | Wrynlee | 59 |
| #3,128 | Wrenna | 52 |
| #3,247 | Whitlee | 49 |
| #3,454 | Wynnie | 45 |
| #3,572 | Wilder | 43 |
| #3,705 | Wilma | 41 |
| #3,706 | Wrenn | 41 |
| #3,707 | Wylder | 41 |
| #3,829 | Winslet | 39 |
| #3,970 | Wednesday | 37 |
| #4,063 | Weslyn | 36 |
| #4,262 | Willamina | 34 |
| #4,456 | Wynne | 32 |
| #4,658 | Westlyn | 30 |
| #4,750 | Whitleigh | 29 |
| #5,090 | Wyllow | 26 |
Ranks are overall positions among all 2025 girl names, so gaps between rows are real. For a random shortlist, spin W girl names in the generator, or scan the full top 100 girl names.
How common is W as a first letter for girls in 2025?
Count births rather than names and W lands 20th of the 26 initials for girls in 2025: 1.1% of the top-1,000 total, spread over 12 names. Tier by tier, the 2025 overall top 100 claims 1 of the table's 50 names, the 101–500 band claims 7, the 501–1,000 band claims 4, and 38 rank past #1,000, outside the committed top-1,000 file. The table's last row, Wyllow, still carries 26 births at #5,090; any W girl names below it are outside the committed per-letter depth of 50 and are not shown.
The 2025 W table runs from Willow at #44 to Wyllow at #5,090, and Willow's 4,763 births are 183.2 times Wyllow's 26; all 50 rows together sum to 16,429 births. The middle row, the 25th, is Walker at #1,961 with 99 births in 2025. The widest jump between consecutive rows is 392 ranks, from Walker (#1,961) to Weslie (#2,353); every 2025 girl name at the ranks between them begins with another letter. 4 rows carry exactly the count of the row above them, ordered by the SSA's alphabetical tie rule; the first such pair is Winslie (#2,818) and Wisdom (#2,819), at 61 births each. W's top-100 name for 2025 is Willow (#44), 1 of the table's 50.
How a rank like #44 is assigned, including the SSA's alphabetical tie-break between equal counts, is explained in Reading ranks and counts.
W girl names across the decade snapshots
W girl names appear in the top 200 in 6 of the 7 snapshot years: 1955 (2 names, led by Wanda at #61 with 7,415 births), 1965 (2 names, led by Wendy at #39 with 10,481 births), 1975 (1 name, led by Wendy at #33 with 7,473 births), 1985 (2 names, led by Whitney at #73 with 3,832 births), 1995 (1 name, led by Whitney at #115 with 2,780 births) and 2015 (1 name, led by Willow at #111 with 2,811 births). In the other 1 (2005), no W girl name reached rank 200, which is where the committed decade files stop. The lead changed hands among 4 names across those 6 snapshots (Wanda, Wendy, Whitney and Willow), and Willow leads again in 2025, at #44.
| Snapshot | W names in top 200 | Leading W name | Rank | Babies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s (1955) | 2 | Wanda | #61 | 7,415 |
| 1960s (1965) | 2 | Wendy | #39 | 10,481 |
| 1970s (1975) | 1 | Wendy | #33 | 7,473 |
| 1980s (1985) | 2 | Whitney | #73 | 3,832 |
| 1990s (1995) | 1 | Whitney | #115 | 2,780 |
| 2000s (2005) | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2010s (2015) | 1 | Willow | #111 | 2,811 |
Of the births inside each snapshot's top 200 for girls, W names took 0.8% in 1955, 1.2% in 1965, 0.8% in 1975, 0.5% in 1985, 0.3% in 1995, 0.0% in 2005 and 0.3% in 2015; the largest of those 7 shares is 1965's and the smallest 2005's. Cut to the same top-200 depth, the 2025 list holds 2 W names with 0.9% of its births, led by Willow at #44. The move from 0.8% (1955) to 0.3% (2015) is W's row in First-letter trends since 1955, the guide that tabulates all 26 initials for every snapshot year and both sexes, listed with the rest of the data guides.
Faded and new W girl names
Between the snapshots and 2025, 1 W girl name dropped out at the committed depths — each inside some snapshot's top 200, none among the 50 names in the 2025 table. Absent means absent from the 2025 top-50 W list, which stops at Wyllow (#5,090, 26 births); a faded name may still be registered below that cut.
| Name | Best rank (year) | Snapshots in top 200 | Last charted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wanda | #61 (1955) | 2 of 7 | 1965 |
The 2025 table also carries 47 names that no snapshot top 200 contains: Wrenley (#159), Wren (#231), Wrenlee (#358), Willa (#422), Winter (#426), Wynter (#457), Winnie (#475), Winona (#627), Whitley (#677), Wrenleigh (#685), Winifred (#923) and Waverly (#1,028), and 35 more. Because the committed snapshots stop at rank 200, this says only that Wrenley (#159 in 2025) and the other 46 sat outside the top 200 in each of 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005, 2015, not that they went unregistered in those years.
The shape of the 2025 W list
Short names (four letters or fewer) number 2 in the 2025 W table, medium ones (five to seven) 40, and long ones (eight or more) 8. The 2025 rank spans by length class are 2 short spellings from Wren at #231 to Wynn at #1,709; 40 medium spellings from Willow at #44 to Wyllow at #5,090; and 8 long spellings from Wrenleigh at #685 to Whitleigh at #4,750. By letter count, Wren is the shortest spelling in the 2025 table (4 letters, #231) and Wilhelmina the longest (10 letters, #1,517). "i" is the second letter of 17 of the 50 names in the 2025 W table, "y" of 10, and "e" of 8; 6 second letters are used in total.
Across the sexes, 11 of these 50 spellings also sit on the 2025 boys' W list, where the SSA ranks each sex on its own: Wren (#231 for girls, #1,090 for boys), Winter (#426 for girls, #1,990 for boys), Whitley (#677 for girls, #1,823 for boys), Wyatt (#1,483 for girls, #38 for boys), Wynn (#1,709 for girls, #1,726 for boys), Wesley (#1,926 for girls, #52 for boys), Walker (#1,961 for girls, #78 for boys) and Wylie (#2,689 for girls, #1,182 for boys), and 3 more.
W girl names: questions the data answers
What is the most popular girl name starting with W in 2025?
Willow. The 2025 SSA data records 4,763 girls named Willow, which places it at #44 among all girl names that year, inside the overall top 100.
How many girl names starting with W are in the 2025 top 1,000?
12. Together they account for 1.1% of the births in the 2025 top 1,000, the 20th-largest share among the 26 initials.
Why does this page list 50 W girl names?
The committed per-letter file holds the 50 most-registered 2025 girl names for each initial, and W fills it: the 50th row is Wyllow at #5,090. Any W names below that cut are outside the committed depth and are not shown.
Which W girl name on this page has the lowest rank?
Wyllow, at #5,090 with 26 births in 2025. Ranks are overall positions among all 2025 girl names, so the span from #44 to #5,090 covers names that start with other letters.
How many W girl names were in the top 200 in 1955 and in 2015?
2 in 1955 (led by Wanda at #61) and 1 in 2015 (led by Willow at #111). Each snapshot is one SSA year ranked to a depth of 200, and W's highest count among the 7 is 2 in 1955.
Do any of these W girl names also appear on the boys' W list for 2025?
Yes, 11 of the 50: Wren (#231 for girls, #1,090 for boys), Winter (#426 for girls, #1,990 for boys), Whitley (#677 for girls, #1,823 for boys), Wyatt (#1,483 for girls, #38 for boys), Wynn (#1,709 for girls, #1,726 for boys), Wesley (#1,926 for girls, #52 for boys), Walker (#1,961 for girls, #78 for boys) and Wylie (#2,689 for girls, #1,182 for boys), and 3 more. The SSA ranks each sex on its own, which is why Wren carries #231 with 1,331 births for girls and #1,090 with 198 for boys.
Other letters
Boy names for this letter: boy names starting with W.
Source: every name, rank, and count on this page comes from the U.S. Social Security Administration's national baby-names dataset (2025 data, from Social Security card applications). It is public-domain U.S. government data; names given fewer than 5 times in a year are excluded by the SSA, spelling variants are counted separately, and the data covers U.S. births only. Full caveats on the methodology page.