From Old English and German 'wild,' meaning untamed or free-spirited; a surname used as a first name.
Wilde is an Old English and Old High German adjective name meaning "wild," "untamed," or "free-spirited," functioning first as a byname for someone whose temperament or appearance seemed ungoverned by convention. It entered the English surname tradition in this descriptive capacity and persisted through the centuries largely as a family name — until the life and legend of one bearer transformed it into something far richer. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) is the name's indelible anchor in the cultural imagination.
The Irish playwright, poet, and wit redefined literary brilliance and social transgression simultaneously, producing The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and a body of aphorisms that still circulate as common cultural currency. His imprisonment and ruin under Victorian sodomy laws, and his subsequent rehabilitation as a martyr for artistic freedom and gay rights, have made the surname Wilde synonymous with genius, beauty, defiance, and tragedy in exquisite measure. Kim Wilde, the British pop singer of the 1980s, and Olivia Wilde, the contemporary actress and director, have broadened the name's modern associations considerably.
As a given name, Wilde carries an almost paradoxical quality: it sounds both literary and feral, cultivated and instinctive. It has risen gradually among parents seeking names that honor creative iconoclasm without demanding explanation. Gender-neutral in contemporary usage, it suits children whose parents hope they will live, as Oscar himself advised, "as if everything is a miracle."