Winifred
Top 1000
About Winifred
One of the few remaining unrestored vintage gems, with a choice of two winning nicknames--the girlish Winnie and the tomboyish Freddie. Winifred, the name of a legendary Welsh saint, was a Top 200 name into the mid-1920's.
Winifred was one of the Forsytes in The Forsyte Saga, Winifred Foster was the heroine of Tuck Everlasting, and another appeared in Joss Wheden's Angel; in Once Upon a Mattress, Princess Winnifred (two n's) sings the song 'A Girl Named Fred'. The Disney folks seem to have been fond of the name--they used it in Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and Hocus Pocus.
Actress Jacqueline Bisset was born a Winifred and notable Winnies include Mrs. Mandela and the young girlfriend on The Wonder Years.
Formerly considered old and fusty, Winifred is back in and was featured in the US Top 1000 in 2023.
As of October 2026, Winifred ranked #923 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #141 in 1917, Nameberry popularity #416.
Editor's take: The name Winifred is a girl's name of Welsh origin meaning "blessed peacemaking".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #1,995 | 100 | 56 |
| 2015 | #1,447 | 160 | 89.6 |
| 2016 | #1,540 | 147 | 83 |
| 2017 | #1,371 | 169 | 97.9 |
| 2018 | #1,439 | 154 | 90.5 |
| 2019 | #1,215 | 193 | 115 |
| 2020 | #1,103 | 222 | 137.3 |
| 2021 | #1,071 | 235 | 143.2 |
| 2022 | #1,092 | 229 | 139.6 |
| 2023 | #963 | 269 | 167.6 |
| 2024 | #1,031 | 244 | 150.6 |
| 2025 | #923 | 284 | 176.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Winifred.
Famous Winifreds
- (Una) Winifred Atwell
Trinidadian pianist
- Winifred May Birkin
birth name of English socialite Freda Dudley Ward
- Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils
American journalist
- Winifred "Winnie" Carney
Irish independence activist and suffragist
- Winifred Cavendish
Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, British philanthropist
- Winifred Rockefeller Emeny
American socialite, granddaughter of mogul William Rockefeller
- Maud Isabel "Winifred" Emery
English stage actress
- Winifred Greenwood
American silent film actress
- Winifred Florence Shotter
English actress
- Winifred Margaret Slocock McNair
English tennis player
- Winifred Holtby
English novelist
- Winifred Lewellin James
Australian writer
- Winifred Lamb
British classical archaeologist
- Winifred Milius Lubell
American illustrator and writer
- Winifred Maxwell
Countess of Nithsdale, English Catholic noblewoman
- Winifred Phillips
American video game composer
- Winifred Robinson
English radio presenter
- (Margaret) Winifred Rushforth
Scottish psychoanalyst
- Winifred Sackville Stoner aka Mother Stoner
founder of the Natural Education movement
- Winifred Sackville Stoner
Jr., American poet
- Winifred Coombe Tennant
Welsh politician and spiritualist medium
- Winifred Marjorie Williams Wagner
wife of composer Siegfried Wagner; daughter,in,law of Richard Wagner
- Winifred Eileen Watson
English novelist
- Winifred Elaine "Wynne" Gibson
American actress
- Winifred Wells
mistress to King Charles II of England
- Winifred Westover
American actress
- Winifred Horan
American fiddler of groups Cherish the Ladies and Solas
Winifred in pop culture
- Winifred "Winnie" Rose
character on the TV series "Anne with an E"
- Dora Winifred "D.W." Read
character in "Arthur" series by Marc Brown
- Lady Winifred
character in "Lady Connie" by Mrs Humphry Ward
- Princess Winifred
character in "Once Upon a Mattress"
- Winifred Banks
character in "Mary Poppins"
- Winifred "Fred" Burkle
character on "Angel"
- Winifred Dartie
character in "Forsyte" saga by John Galsworthy
- Winifred "Winnie" Foster
character in "Tuck Everlasting"
- Winifred Fowl
character on "Jimmy Neutron"
- Winnifred James
character in St Clare series by Enid Blyton
- Winifred Madgers
in "Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings and Legacy" by Charles Dickens
- Winifred "Winnie" Perry
character in "The Winnie Years" by Lauren Myracle
- Winifred Sanderson
character in "Hocus Pocus"
- Winifred Wood
in "Jack Sheppard" by William Harrison Ainsworth
- Winifred Portley
Rind "Winnie" in the film 'The Boxtrolls'
- Winifred James
head,girl in the "St Clare" book series by Enid Blyton
- Sister Winifred
character on the TV series "Call the Midwife"
- Winifred "Freddie" Brooks
character on the TV series "A Different World"
- Winifred "Freddie" Pink
character on the TV series "Murdoch Mysteries"
- St Winefride's Well
possibly the oldest continually active pilgrimage site in all of Britain