Winifred
The story
Winifred is the English form of the Welsh Gwenfrewi, traditionally translated as blessed reconciliation, carried by a seventh-century Welsh saint whose healing well at Holywell drew pilgrims for more than a thousand years. The US curve tells a perfect vintage story: solid from the 1890s through the 1920s, a long fade to near-dormancy by the 1960s, and then a genuine climb through the 2010s to a 2020s level that matches its founding decades, so its two peaks sit a century and a quarter apart. Winnie is the warm engine of the revival, and Freda keeps the old-school short form alive. A saint's name that waited out an entire century and came back smiling. Its second peak is revival rather than novelty, backed by generations of earlier American use.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Winifred peaked in the 1890s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
The Winifred deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Winifred 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 Winifred fits with your family’s names and surname.
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