Wanda

The name stems from Polish legend, recorded by the thirteenth-century chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek, concerning a princess named Wanda who rejected an unwanted foreign suitor. English speakers encountered it in nineteenth-century romantic fiction, including Ouida’s 1883 novel Wanda. American parents adopted the name with increasing regularity after 1880, setting up a steady climb into midcentury rotation.

A Wanda is generally imagined standing behind a laminate counter or holding a metal clipboard with quiet authority. The name arrived at its high-water mark in 1957 and remained firmly pinned to the era of tailfins and chrome appliances. It does not trail off or ask for second chances. Today, with the typical bearer around seventy years old, the name reads as someone who still writes checks with a black ballpoint pen and has never once struggled to parallel park.