Guillaume
A French masculine given name derived from Germanic roots meaning "resolute protector".
Name Census estimates that about 331 living Americans carry the first name Guillaume. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Guillaume today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Guillaume births was 1997 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Guillaume. 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 Guillaume with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
331
~ 1 in 1,035,512 Americans
Peak year
1997
19 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,365
Tracked since 1967
Census
Guillaume in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,452 people with the first name Guillaume, which placed it at #9,530 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
#9,530
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,452 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Guillaume
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Guillaume is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.6%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Guillaume 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 Guillaume at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.3% · 1,151
- Black or African American13.6% · 198
- Two or more races3.2% · 47
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 20
Popularity
Guillaume: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Guillaume from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 114 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Guillaume 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 Guillaume during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Guillaume
The given name Guillaume originates from the Germanic languages, with roots tracing back to the 8th century. It is a French form of the Germanic name Willahelm, derived from the elements "wil" meaning "will" or "desire" and "helm" meaning "helmet" or "protection." The name evolved into Guillelmus in Latin, then Guillaume in Old French.
The name gained prominence during the Norman conquest of England in 1066, when William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087), also known as Guillaume le Conquérant, led the Norman invasion and became the first Norman king of England. This significant historical event contributed to the widespread use of the name Guillaume across Europe.
In the 12th century, the French philosopher and logician William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347), also known as Guillaume d'Ockham, rose to prominence with his influential philosophical principles, including Occam's razor. His works had a lasting impact on medieval philosophy and the development of modern scientific thought.
Another notable figure was William of Tyre (c. 1130-1186), a medieval chronicler and archbishop whose full name was Guillaume de Tyr. His work, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, is considered one of the most influential accounts of the Crusades.
In the 16th century, Guillaume Budé (1467-1540), a French scholar and humanist, played a crucial role in the revival of classical studies and the promotion of humanism during the Renaissance period.
The 17th century saw the rise of the French composer Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397-1474), a prominent figure in the Burgundian School and one of the earliest composers to gain widespread recognition across Europe.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Guillaume, reflecting its enduring presence and significance across various fields and eras.
People
Guillaume + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Guillaume 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
Guillaume: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Guillaume?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 331 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Guillaume 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 1,035,512 US residents.
Is Guillaume a common name?
We classify Guillaume as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 341 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Guillaume most popular?
The single biggest year for Guillaume was 1997, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Guillaume is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Guillaume in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,452 people with the name Guillaume, or 0.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,530 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 Guillaume 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 Guillaume?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Guillaume appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,451 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Guillaume?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Guillaume is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.6%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Guillaume most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Guillaume in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.3% (1,151 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 Guillaume in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Guillaume a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Guillaume 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 Guillaume still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Guillaume 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 Guillaume 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 share the name Guillaume?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Guillaume on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.