Bill
A short form of William, from the Germanic name meaning "resolute protector".
Name Census estimates that about 76,202 living Americans carry the first name Bill. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bill today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bill births was 1947 (4,688 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bill. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Bill with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Bill is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 716 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Bill is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Bills were born before 1966.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Bill have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
76K
~ 1 in 4,498 Americans
Peak year
1947
4,688 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,572
Tracked since 1880
Census
Bill in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 77,812 people with the first name Bill, which placed it at #680 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#680
National first-name rank
People counted
78K
77,812 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
25.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bill
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bill is White at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.6%) and Black (4.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Bill described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Bill at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.2% · 65,489
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 3,566
- Black or African American4.4% · 3,430
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 2,701
- Two or more races2.3% · 1,801
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 825
Gender
Gender distribution for Bill
Out of the 161,173 babies given the name Bill since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Bill as a male name
- Ranked #4,572 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (4,681 births)
Bill as a female name
- Ranked #11,087 in 1986
- 5 female births in 1986
- Peak: 1932 (34 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bill appears almost entirely male. Of the 77,823 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Bill: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bill from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 37,848 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bill by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Bill during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bills live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Bill, while Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,026 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bill
The given name Bill has its origins in the Old Germanic nameBildi, which was derived from the Proto-Germanic word *bildan, meaning "to make" or "to form." This name was initially used in various Germanic tribes, such as the Franks and the Saxons, during the early medieval period.
In the 8th century, the name Bildulfus, a combination of the elements "bildan" and "wulf" (meaning "wolf"), appeared in Frankish records. Over time, this name evolved into the Old English form Bilwald, which later became the more familiar William.
The name William gained widespread popularity in Europe after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, when William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, ascended to the English throne. This event helped to establish the name as a prominent one in England and other parts of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the shortened form Bill can be found in the 14th century, when it was used as a nickname for William. The name Bill, or its variations like Will and Wil, became increasingly common as a standalone name in the following centuries.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Bill. One of the earliest examples is Bill Longespee, an English nobleman and military commander who lived from around 1212 to 1260. Another notable figure was Bill Cullen, an English Catholic martyr who was executed in 1575 for his religious beliefs.
In more recent times, Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States (born in 1946), is one of the most famous bearers of the name. Other notable Bills include Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft (born in 1955), and Bill Cosby, the American comedian and actor (born in 1937).
The name Bill has also appeared in literature and popular culture. For instance, Bill Sikes was a notorious villain in Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist," published in 1838. Additionally, the character Bill Denbrough was a central figure in Stephen King's horror novel "It," published in 1986.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Bill
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Bill Barber
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Bill Bellamy
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Bill Brame
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Bill Campbell
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Bill Condon
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Bill Cosby
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Bill Cowher
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Bill Daily
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Bill Duke
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Bill Elliott
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Bill Forsyth
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Bill Foster
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Bill Haley
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Bill Lee
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Bill Maher
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Bill Moseley
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Bill Mueller
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Bill Murray
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Bill Nelson
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Bill Paxton
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Bill Pullman
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Bill Richardson
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Bill Robinson
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Bill Rodgers
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Bill Russell
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Bill Sali
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Bill Schroeder
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Bill Sharman
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Bill Sherwood
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Bill Shuster
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Bill Skowron
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Bill Walton
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Bill Wyman
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Bill Young
People
Bill + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bill as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bill: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bill?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 76,202 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bill going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,498 US residents.
Is Bill a common name?
We classify Bill as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 161,173 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bill most popular?
The single biggest year for Bill was 1947, when 4,688 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bill is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bill in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 77,812 people with the name Bill, or 25.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #680 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Bill in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Bill?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bill appears almost entirely male. Of the 77,823 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Bill?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bill is White at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.6%) and Black (4.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Bill most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bill in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.2% (65,489 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Bill in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bill a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Bill in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Bill still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bill in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Bill can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Bill?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Bill at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.