Willaim
A masculine Germanic name derived from the elements "will" (desire) and "helm" (protection).
Name Census estimates that about 1,040 living Americans carry the first name Willaim. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Willaim today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willaim births was 1987 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willaim. 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.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 329,571 Americans
Peak year
1987
34 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2018 SSA rank
#8,121
Tracked since 1882
Census
Willaim in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,427 people with the first name Willaim, which placed it at #6,570 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
#6,570
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,427 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Willaim
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willaim is White at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.8%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Willaim 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 Willaim at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.5% · 2,075
- Black or African American4.8% · 116
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 104
- Two or more races3.4% · 82
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 15
Popularity
Willaim: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willaim from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 251 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Willaim 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 Willaim during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Willaims live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Texas recorded the most babies named Willaim, while Texas, Pennsylvania, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Willaim
The name Willaim is of Germanic origin, deriving from the Old German words "wil" meaning "desire" or "will" and "helm" meaning "helmet" or "protection." It is believed to have originated sometime around the 8th or 9th century AD.
The name Willaim was initially popular among the Franks, a Germanic tribe that settled in what is now modern-day France, Belgium, and parts of the Netherlands. From there, it spread to other parts of Europe, particularly in Anglo-Saxon England, where it was adapted to the spelling "William."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Willaim can be found in the 9th century, when a Frankish monk named Willaim of Gellone, also known as Saint William of Gellone, lived from around 755 to 812 AD. He was a relative of Charlemagne and served as a military leader before becoming a monk.
Another notable figure named Willaim was William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy who invaded and conquered England in 1066. He was born around 1028 and reigned as the King of England until his death in 1087. His conquest marked a significant turning point in English history and had a lasting impact on the country's language and culture.
In the 12th century, William of Tyre, a historian and archbishop, wrote a comprehensive account of the Crusades titled "Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum" (History of Deeds Done Across the Sea). He lived from around 1130 to 1186 and played a crucial role in documenting the events of the Crusades.
During the 13th century, William Wallace, a Scottish knight and landowner, emerged as a prominent figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence against England. He was born around 1270 and played a pivotal role in leading the resistance against the English occupation of Scotland before being executed in 1305.
In the 16th century, William Shakespeare, widely regarded as one of the greatest playwrights and poets of all time, lived from 1564 to 1616. His works, including plays such as "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet," and "Macbeth," have had a profound influence on literature and continue to be studied and performed worldwide.
People
Willaim + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willaim 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
Willaim: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willaim?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,040 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willaim 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 329,571 US residents.
Is Willaim a common name?
We classify Willaim as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,597 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willaim most popular?
The single biggest year for Willaim was 1987, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willaim is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Willaim in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,427 people with the name Willaim, or 0.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,570 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 Willaim 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 Willaim?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willaim appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,429 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Willaim?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willaim is White at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.8%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Willaim most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Willaim in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.5% (2,075 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 Willaim in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Willaim a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Willaim 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 Willaim still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Willaim 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 Willaim 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 Willaim?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Willaim at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.