Wilder
Meaning
wild, untamed
The story
Wilder is exactly the word it looks like, an English surname and now a bold given name meaning wild, untamed, free. It reads as an invitation to a spirited, adventurous life. As a surname it carries a remarkable run of talent: Laura Ingalls Wilder, who turned the American frontier into Little House on the Prairie, Thornton Wilder, who wrote Our Town, the beloved comic actor Gene Wilder, and the great director Billy Wilder. So a name that means untamed also carries a lineage of storytellers. Brand new as a first name, Wilder has climbed fast in the United States and reads as current as it has ever been, at the leading edge of adventurous surname names. Free-spirited and confident, Wilder hands a child a single word that dares them to be a little untamed, and a shelf of great American stories to grow into.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Wilder peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,426 people · the #6,491 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 142,857 · median age 32
Among people named Wilder living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 20 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Wilder
Most people given the name Wilder in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Wilder deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Wilder truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Wilder fits with your family’s names and surname.
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