Walker is an English occupational surname for a "fuller" or "cloth walker", a worker who trod woolen cloth in water to thicken it. Writer Walker Percy and photographer Walker Evans carried it as a first name, and today it is part of the American fashion for surnames with a Western ring, such as Hudson and Brooks. Walker ranked number 427 in the United States in 2000, jumped from number 341 in 2015 into the top 100 in 2022, where it peaked at number 78, and holds number 78 among boys in 2025.