Meaning of the nameWanderlei

Male
Wan-der-lei

Wanderlei is a male name, a form of Vanderlei, which comes from the Dutch byname von der Ley, 'of the slates', according to the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil.

Meaning

“of the slates (from the Dutch von der Ley, origin of Vanderlei)”

Source: Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Morfemário (-derlei)

People (2022): 13,460
Rank in Brazil: #1,381
Median age: 51 years
2010 Census: 16,917; people

Wanderlei in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Wanderlei, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1970s (4,169 people).

107 women 13,353 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Wanderlei is most common

States with the highest share of people named Wanderlei in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	3,597	0.008%
Minas Gerais	2,631	0.013%
Rio de Janeiro	1,401	0.009%
Paraná	1,193	0.010%
Santa Catarina	737	0.010%
Goiás	532	0.008%
Rio Grande do Sul	531	0.005%
Pará	383	0.005%
Mato Grosso	307	0.008%
Bahia	287	0.002%
Espírito Santo	284	0.007%
Mato Grosso do Sul	253	0.009%
Amazonas	181	0.005%
Pernambuco	161	0.002%
Rondônia	152	0.010%
Paraíba	144	0.004%
Distrito Federal	117	0.004%
Ceará	108	0.001%
Tocantins	93	0.006%
Rio Grande do Norte	90	0.003%
Maranhão	88	0.001%
Piauí	43	0.001%
Sergipe	38	0.002%
Amapá	33	0.005%
Alagoas	31	0.001%
Roraima	27	0.004%
Acre	18	0.002%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Wanderlei

Wiktionary lists Wanderlei and Wanderley as alternative forms of Vanderlei, which comes from the Dutch van der Leij. The morpheme list of the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil (Dictionary of Names in Use in Brazil), citing Guérios and Machado, explains that the given name Vanderley was formed in Brazil from the Dutch byname von der Ley, 'of the slates', which became van der Lei and then Vanderlei, originating in the seventeenth century, at the time of the Dutch presence in Pernambuco. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 13,460 people named Wanderlei, with a median age of 51. The two spellings in the group replace the V of Vanderlei with W and differ in the ending, -lei or -ley.

Spelling with the ending -lei, as in Vanderlei, the V form that Wiktionary gives as the main one; proportionally, it is most common in Minas Gerais.

Other spellings of Wanderlei

Spelling	People (2022)
Wanderley	18,244
Wanderlei	13,460

Sources

Wiktionary: Vanderlei · en.wiktionary.org · origin
Wiktionary: Wanderlei · en.wiktionary.org · spelling
Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Morfemário (-derlei) · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · meaning
Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Wanderlei · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · usage
Wiktionary: Wanderley · en.wiktionary.org · spelling

Questions about the name Wanderlei

What does the name Wanderlei mean?

Wanderlei means “of the slates (from the Dutch von der Ley, origin of Vanderlei)”, according to Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil.

How many people are named Wanderlei in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 13,460 people with the first name Wanderlei, which ranks it number 1,381 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1970s.

Is Wanderlei a boy's or a girl's name?

Wanderlei is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 107 women and 13,353 men had this name.

In which Brazilian state is Wanderlei most common?

Proportionally, in Minas Gerais: 0.013% of the state's population is named Wanderlei (2,631 people), according to the 2022 Census.

What are the other spellings of Wanderlei?

Wanderley. IBGE counts each spelling separately.

Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Wanderlei with a source. See the methodology.