as a First Name
From an Old French personal name of Germanic (Frankish) origin, derived from wald ‘rule’ + heri, hari ‘army’. This was adopted by the Normans and introduced by them to England, superseding the native Old English form, Wealdhere. It was a very popular name in medieval England, normally pronounced ‘Water’.
| 150th in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Quick facts
- Hundreds of thousands
- of people in the U.S have this name
- 382,446
- to be exact (as of February 2011)
- 552,856
- if you include dead people (since the government started keeping track)
- Mississippi
- has the most people named Walter per capita
- 1914
- marked the height of its popularity
0.07%
99.93%
62%
55+
55+
28%
30-54
30-54
6%
13-29
13-29
4%
0-12
0-12
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
