MEANING & HISTORY
What does Wilfred mean?
Wilfred comes from Old English Wilfrith, combining will or desire with peace. Early Anglo-Saxon saints helped preserve it as a personal name.
The modern spelling changes the older consonants without altering the identifiable elements. Desiring peace is an interpretive summary, while will and peace give the closer root glosses.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
The name of two early Anglo-Saxon saints Wilfriþ, from Old English wil (“will”) + friþ (“peace”).
A male given name from Old English, popular in the U.K. in the early twentieth century.
Wiktionary: Wilfred (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Wilfred
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Wilfred Steven Uytengsu
Filipino businessman
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
2
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Wilfred Steven Uytengsu
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Wilfred in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Wilfred
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Wilfredo♂Desiring peace; Spanish form of Wilfred
- Alfred♂Elf counsel
- Elfred·Counterpart of the documented name Elfrida
- Mildred♀Gentleness and strength
- Wilfrido·Documented Germanic Wilfrid name-family form
- Eldred·Transferred surname from Old English Ealdræd
- Fred♂Short form of Frederick and related longer names
- Kindred♂English kinship or relatedness word
What rhymes with Wilfred?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Wilfred further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q16282621 — Wilfred (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Wilfred Steven Uytengsu (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q16282621 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Wilfred (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Wilfred (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.