Will
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "resolution" or "desire".
Name Census estimates that about 20,888 living Americans carry the first name Will. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Will today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Will births was 1888 (712 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Will. 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 Will with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Will is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 658 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,409 Americans
Peak year
1888
712 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,283
Tracked since 1880
Census
Will in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 44,842 people with the first name Will, which placed it at #971 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
#971
National first-name rank
People counted
45K
44,842 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
14.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Will
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Will is White at 72.6%. The next largest groups are Black (13.4%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Will 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 Will at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.6% · 32,570
- Black or African American13.4% · 5,991
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 3,165
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 1,398
- Two or more races3.1% · 1,395
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 323
Gender
Gender distribution for Will
Will leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 658 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Will as a male name
- Ranked #1,283 in 2024
- 153 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1888 (707 births)
Will as a female name
- Ranked #11,432 in 1978
- 5 female births in 1978
- Peak: 1922 (24 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Will appears almost entirely male. Of the 44,843 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Will: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Will from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1880s, with 6,246 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1880s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Will 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 Will during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wills live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Will, while Vermont, Nevada, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 597 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Will
The name Will is a masculine given name derived from the Old German name Willahelm, which consists of two elements: "wil" meaning will or desire, and "helm" meaning protection or helmet. This name became popular in England after the Norman Conquest in 1066, as a variation of the French name Guillaume.
In the Middle Ages, Will was a common shortened form of William, which was one of the most popular names among the Norman nobility. The name gained further prominence with the reign of William the Conqueror, who ruled England from 1066 to 1087.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Will can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which mentions a figure named Will who was the son of King Edward the Elder in the 10th century. The name also appears in several works of literature from the Middle Ages, such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Will. One of the most famous was William Shakespeare, the renowned English playwright and poet born in 1564, who was often referred to as Will. Another prominent figure was Will Rogers, an American cowboy, humorist, and social commentator, who lived from 1879 to 1935.
In the world of art, Will Barnet was an American painter and printmaker known for his abstract works, who lived from 1911 to 2012. Will Eisner, born in 1917 and died in 2005, was an American cartoonist and writer who is considered a pioneer of the graphic novel form.
Will Keith Kellogg, born in 1860 and died in 1951, was an American industrialist and founder of the Kellogg Company, known for its popular breakfast cereals. He was instrumental in the development of the dry cereal industry.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Will throughout history, reflecting its enduring popularity and significance across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Will
People
Will + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Will 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
Will: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Will?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,888 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Will 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 16,409 US residents.
Is Will a common name?
We classify Will as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 46,439 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Will most popular?
The single biggest year for Will was 1888, when 712 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Will is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Will in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 44,842 people with the name Will, or 14.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #971 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 Will 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 Will?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Will appears almost entirely male. Of the 44,843 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Will?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Will is White at 72.6%. The next largest groups are Black (13.4%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Will most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Will in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.6% (32,570 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 Will in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Will a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Will 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 Will still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Will 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 Will 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 Will?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.