Guilherme
A masculine Portuguese name of Germanic origin meaning "wilful protector".
Name Census estimates that about 502 living Americans carry the first name Guilherme. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Guilherme today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Guilherme births was 2006 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Guilherme. 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 Guilherme with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
502
~ 1 in 682,778 Americans
Peak year
2006
39 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,902
Tracked since 1921
Census
Guilherme in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,595 people with the first name Guilherme, which placed it at #6,229 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
#6,229
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,595 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Guilherme
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Guilherme is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Black (5.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.2%). 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 Guilherme 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 Guilherme at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.0% · 2,154
- Black or African American5.8% · 151
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 108
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 106
- Two or more races2.7% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 7
Popularity
Guilherme: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Guilherme from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 257 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Guilherme 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 Guilherme during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Guilhermes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut recorded the most babies named Guilherme, while Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Guilherme
Guilherme is a masculine given name of Portuguese origin, derived from the Germanic name Willahelm, which is a combination of two elements: "wil" meaning "will" or "desire," and "helm" meaning "protection" or "helmet." The name can be traced back to the Middle Ages, around the 12th century.
The name Guilherme became popular in Portugal during the Medieval period, particularly after the birth of King Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal. His mother, Countess Teresa of Portugal, had a close advisor named Guilherme de Montrior, who played a significant role in the formation of the Kingdom of Portugal. This association likely contributed to the name's widespread use among the Portuguese nobility.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Guilherme can be found in the "Cantigas de Santa Maria," a collection of 420 poems and songs written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of King Alfonso X of Castile and Leon (1221-1284). The name appears in several of these cantigas, indicating its use in the 13th century.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Guilherme. One of the most famous was William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087), the first Norman King of England, whose French name was Guillaume. Another prominent figure was William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347), an English Franciscan friar and philosopher known for his principle of parsimony, often referred to as "Occam's Razor."
In Portugal, Guilherme de Valença (c. 1225-1279) was a prominent Catholic priest and the first Archbishop of Valencia, Spain. Guilherme Gonzaga (c. 1532-1587) was an Italian nobleman and military leader who served as the first Duke of Mantua and Montferrat. Also noteworthy is Guilherme de Nassau (1533-1584), known as William the Silent, who was a prominent leader in the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule and is considered the founder of the Netherlands.
Other historical figures with the name Guilherme include Guilherme de Machaut (c. 1300-1377), a renowned medieval French poet and composer, and Guilherme IV (1765-1837), the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 1830 until his death.
People
Guilherme + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Guilherme as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Guilherme: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Guilherme?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 502 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Guilherme 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 682,778 US residents.
Is Guilherme a common name?
We classify Guilherme as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 514 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Guilherme most popular?
The single biggest year for Guilherme was 2006, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Guilherme is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Guilherme in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,595 people with the name Guilherme, or 0.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,229 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 Guilherme 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 Guilherme?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Guilherme appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,595 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Guilherme?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Guilherme is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Black (5.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.2%). 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 Guilherme most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Guilherme in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (2,154 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 Guilherme in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Guilherme a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Guilherme 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 Guilherme still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Guilherme 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 Guilherme 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 many people are named Guilherme?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.