Walter

Walter is the 739th most common surname in the United States, shared by 45,791 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 6,527.

By the numbers

People: 45,791
Rank: 739th
How common: 1 in 6,527
Per 100,000: 15.3

Where the name comes from

A Germanic name, from Middle English Walter, from fro-nor Waltier, from Frankish *Waltheri (compare Old High German Waltheri, which see for more details), from Proto-West Germanic *Waldahari, from Proto-Germanic *Waldaharjaz.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Walter described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 86.0%
Black, not Hispanic 5.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.2%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Walter

Fritz Walter (1920–2002)German association football player
Diego Walter (born 1993)Uruguayan association football player
Ottmar Walter (1924–2013)German footballer
Bruno Walter (1876–1962)German-born conductor, pianist, and composer
Jessica Walter (1941–2021)American actress
Little Walter (1930–1968)American blues harmonica player
Harriet Walter (born 1950)British actress
Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909–1977)cohabitant of Pablo Picasso

People named Walter with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Walter

Also a first name

Walter has been given to 634,804 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1918. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.