Waldo

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Waldo is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name87K records spelled Waldo11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Brazil

  Languages: English, Dutch, Western Frisian

  Also written Waldö

• German given name2.6K records spelled Waldo5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, South Africa, Canada

  Languages: German, English

  Also written Waldoe, Wâldö, Wâldoe

• a separate given name2.2K records spelled Waldo2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Bolivia, Ecuador, United Kingdom

  Also written Waldö

60 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Waldo is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, short form from Wald- or Wall-; also related to Ewald

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In English, short form of names with Wal-; also a saint's name

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In English, Synonym of telefactor.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In German, from ONs Luckau and Lübben

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In German, ) Walto: männl. Vom., verselbst­ ständigte Kurzform von Namen, die mit »Wald[e]-« oder »-wald« gebildet sind.

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 141 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ralph Waldo Emersonb. 1803USAmerican philosopher (1803–1882)
• Waldo P. Johnsonb. 1817USAmerican politician (1817–1885)
• Waldo Semonb. 1898USAmerican inventor (1898–1999)
• Mark Zemanskyb. 1900USnot in their usual nameAmerican physicist, physics textbook writer (1900-1981)
• Johnny Greenb. 1908USnot in their usual nameAmerican conductor, arranger, composer, pianist (1908-1989)
• Waldo Saltb. 1914USAmerican screenwriter (1914-1987)
• Waldo R. Toblerb. 1930USAmerican geographer (1930–2018)
• Waldo L. Parrab. 1965CLChilean lawyer and novelist
• Waldo Ponceb. 1982CLChilean footballer
• Waldo Rubio Martínb. 1995ESassociation football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 592 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Waldo?

We estimate roughly 4.1 thousand people bear Waldo (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Waldo have the most bearers?

Waldo is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled waldo.

How common is Waldo compared with other names?

In Bolivia, Waldo is the 53rd most common given name of 14,901 given names recorded there.

Is Waldo a male or female name?

Waldo is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Waldo mean?

Recorded meaning: Germanic hypocoristic from wald ‘rule, power’.