Wilhemina
Feminine form of the Germanic name Wilhelm, meaning "resolute protector".
Name Census estimates that about 452 living Americans carry the first name Wilhemina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Wilhemina today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wilhemina births was 1960 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wilhemina. 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 Wilhemina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
452
~ 1 in 758,306 Americans
Peak year
1960
35 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17,493
Tracked since 1886
Census
Wilhemina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 562 people with the first name Wilhemina, which placed it at #19,009 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
#19,009
National first-name rank
People counted
562
562 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
61.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wilhemina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilhemina is Black at 61.9%. The next largest groups are White (25.4%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Wilhemina 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 Wilhemina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American61.9% · 348
- White25.4% · 143
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.2% · 18
- Two or more races3.2% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 15
Popularity
Wilhemina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wilhemina from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 226 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wilhemina 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 Wilhemina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wilheminas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia recorded the most babies named Wilhemina, while Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wilhemina
The name Wilhemina is a feminine form of the Germanic name Wilhelm, which is derived from the Old German words "wil" meaning "will" or "desire" and "helm" meaning "helmet" or "protection". The name was likely first used in the 9th century AD among German-speaking populations in central Europe.
Wilhemina has its roots in the medieval Christian tradition, as it was often given to girls in honor of St. Willibrord, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon missionary who helped spread Christianity in the Netherlands and parts of Germany. The name is closely associated with the Dutch royal family, as several Dutch princesses and queens have borne the name throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Wilhemina is Princess Wilhemina of Prussia (1751-1820), the daughter of Prince Augustus William of Prussia and a niece of Frederick the Great. Another notable bearer was Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962), who reigned from 1890 until her abdication in 1948, making her one of the longest-reigning monarchs in Dutch history.
Other famous Wilheminas throughout history include Wilhemina Drummond (1778-1865), a Scottish writer and artist; Wilhemina Fernandez (1910-1943), a Filipino teacher and activist who fought against Japanese occupation during World War II; and Wilhemina Rhodes Kelly (1873-1924), an American educator and civil rights activist who helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Wilhemina has also been used as a name in other European countries, such as Germany and Sweden, where it has been spelled slightly differently, such as Wilhelmina or Vilhelmina. In the United States, the name gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly among families of German or Dutch descent.
People
Wilhemina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wilhemina as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Wilhemina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wilhemina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wilhemina 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 758,306 US residents.
Is Wilhemina a common name?
We classify Wilhemina as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 951 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wilhemina most popular?
The single biggest year for Wilhemina was 1960, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wilhemina is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wilhemina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 562 people with the name Wilhemina, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,009 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 Wilhemina 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 Wilhemina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilhemina appears almost entirely female. Of the 559 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Wilhemina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilhemina is Black at 61.9%. The next largest groups are White (25.4%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Wilhemina most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Wilhemina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.9% (348 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 Wilhemina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wilhemina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wilhemina in the SSA data are female. 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 Wilhemina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wilhemina 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 Wilhemina 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 Wilhemina?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.