Willetta
A feminine name derived from the Germanic elements "wil" and "hialt", meaning "will, desire" and "strong".
Name Census estimates that about 643 living Americans carry the first name Willetta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Willetta today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willetta births was 1922 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willetta. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Willetta is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Willettas were born before 1969.
People living today
643
~ 1 in 533,055 Americans
Peak year
1922
52 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
1992 SSA rank
#15,555
Tracked since 1893
Popularity
Willetta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willetta from the 1890s through to the 1990s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 357 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Willetta 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 Willetta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Willettas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois recorded the most babies named Willetta, while Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Willetta
The name Willetta is a feminine given name of English origin that emerged during the Middle Ages. It is a diminutive form of the Old English name Willemetta, which itself is a combination of the Germanic elements "wil" meaning "will" or "desire" and "met" meaning "mate" or "companion".
Variants of this name, such as Guillemette and Willemina, were relatively common in medieval England and parts of continental Europe. The earliest recorded use of the specific spelling "Willetta" dates back to the 13th century, where it appeared in parish records from the county of Oxfordshire.
One of the earliest notable bearers of this name was Willetta de Breteuil, a noblewoman who lived in Normandy, France, in the late 12th century. She was a prominent landowner and benefactor of the Cistercian order of monks.
In the 15th century, a Willetta Browne was mentioned in the court records of King Henry VI of England. She was a merchant from the city of Bristol, known for her successful trade in wool and textiles.
During the Renaissance period, the name Willetta gained some popularity in Italy, where it was spelled as "Willetta" or "Guiletta". The Italian Renaissance poet and scholar Willetta Cianci, born in 1475 in Siena, was a notable bearer of this name. She was renowned for her contributions to the study of classic Greek and Latin literature.
In the 17th century, Willetta van der Mersch was a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialized in still life and floral compositions. She was born in 1623 in Delft and is considered one of the most accomplished female artists of her time.
Another notable Willetta was Willetta Huggins, an African-American educator and civil rights activist from the late 19th century. Born in 1871 in Georgia, she dedicated her life to promoting education and equal rights for Black Americans in the post-Reconstruction era.
People
Willetta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willetta 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
Willetta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willetta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 643 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willetta 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 533,055 US residents.
Is Willetta a common name?
We classify Willetta as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,880 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willetta most popular?
The single biggest year for Willetta was 1922, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willetta is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Willetta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Willetta 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.
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.