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Wilfred

Only 27 men in Poland carry it, and no boy has been given it since 2000. Germanic at root, from words for "desiring peace". Most Poles have never met one.

Wilfred Pronunciation

Wilfred is pronounced VEELF-ret (/ˈvilfrɛt/).

Alive in 2025
27
National rank
#8190

What Wilfred means

Where Wilfred comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Wilfred comes from Germanic roots. The first part, wil, means will or desire. The second, frith, means peace. Together they give the meaning carried into English: desiring peace.

The name passed through Old English as Wilfrið. Its most famous early bearer was Saint Wilfrid, the seventh-century bishop of York, who died around 709. His standing kept the form in use in England long after the Norman Conquest thinned out many Anglo-Saxon names.

Later the name found a darker home. Wilfred Owen wrote his poems in the trenches of the First World War. He died in 1918, a week before the armistice. A man named for peace, killed in the war meant to end them.

Peace sits inside the name. Wilfred means desiring peace.

How many people are named Wilfred

1 in 790600 men in Poland is named Wilfred. 27 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #8190 among male names.

People with the name Wilfred 2019 → 2025
27 +16 since 2019
2020 11 0
2021 12 +1
2022 14 +2
2023 18 +4
2024 23 +5
2025 27 +4

Wilfred as a middle name

Wilfred is a first name for 27 men in Poland and a middle name for another 20, a 57/43 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2029th, between Vernon (20) and Winston (20).

As a first name
27
As a middle name
20
first name 57% middle name 43%

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