William
A Germanic masculine name meaning "strong-willed warrior" or "resolute protector".
Our analysis of Social Security Administration records puts the number of living Americans named William at approximately 2,335,115. That places it at #10 in the national ranking of first names. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named William today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of William births was 1947 (67,155 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Christopher (1,933,719).
This page is the full Name Census profile for William. 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 William with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although William is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 16,022 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Over 2.3 million Americans are estimated to carry the first name William, putting it among the highest-count names in the entire dataset.
People living today
2.3M
~ 1 in 147 Americans
Peak year
1947
67,155 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10
Tracked since 1880
Census
William in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,240,112 people with the first name William, which placed it at #6 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
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2M
2,240,112 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
741.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for William
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named William is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Hispanic (5.1%). 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 William 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 William at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.3% · 1,866,221
- Black or African American6.9% · 153,992
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 114,833
- Two or more races2.8% · 61,725
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 31,382
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 11,959
Gender
Gender distribution for William
Out of the 4,205,026 babies given the name William since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
William as a male name
- Ranked #10 in 2024
- 10,596 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (67,001 births)
William as a female name
- Ranked #11,017 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1928 (348 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, William appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,240,114 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
William: popularity over time
The SSA tracks William from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 592,615 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
William 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 William during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 84,881 | 365 | 85,246 |
| 1890s | 72,244 | 374 | 72,618 |
| 1900s | 69,320 | 326 | 69,646 |
| 1910s | 303,018 | 1,133 | 304,151 |
| 1920s | 512,402 | 2,655 | 515,057 |
| 1930s | 416,728 | 1,903 | 418,631 |
| 1940s | 556,469 | 1,507 | 557,976 |
| 1950s | 591,226 | 1,389 | 592,615 |
| 1960s | 421,411 | 1,794 | 423,205 |
| 1970s | 283,415 | 1,858 | 285,273 |
| 1980s | 248,286 | 1,684 | 249,970 |
| 1990s | 217,818 | 439 | 218,257 |
| 2000s | 194,404 | 354 | 194,758 |
| 2010s | 159,945 | 184 | 160,129 |
| 2020s | 57,437 | 57 | 57,494 |
Geography
Where Williams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named William, while Alaska, Wyoming, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 77,897 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of William
The name William has Germanic origins and can be traced back to the Old Germanic language. It is derived from the elements "wil" meaning "will" or "desire" and "helm" meaning "helmet" or "protection." Together, these elements form the compound name "Willahelm" or "Willihelm," which translates to "resolute protector" or "strong-willed warrior."
The name gained widespread popularity in the Middle Ages, particularly after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, played a significant role in popularizing the name throughout the British Isles. His birth name was Guillaume, the French form of William, but it became anglicized after his conquest.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Old English poem "Beowulf," where the character Wiglaf is described as a faithful warrior and companion to the hero Beowulf. This early reference suggests that the name was in use among the Anglo-Saxons before the Norman Conquest.
The name William has been borne by numerous notable figures throughout history, including several kings and rulers. Among them are William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087), the first Norman king of England; William Wallace (c. 1270-1305), the Scottish patriot and leader of the Wars of Scottish Independence; William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the renowned English playwright and poet; William the Silent (1533-1584), the main leader of the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule; and William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the English politician and philanthropist who led the movement to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire.
These are just a few examples of the many influential individuals who have carried the name William throughout history. The name has endured for centuries and continues to be a popular choice in various cultures and regions around the world.
Notable bearers
Famous people named William
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William Alexander
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William Asher
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William Baldwin
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William Bell
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William Bendix
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William Berke
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William Bindley
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William Boyd
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William Campbell
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William Castle
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William Clay
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William Clinton
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William Crain
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William Dear
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William Delahunt
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William Devane
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William Dieterle
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William Duncan
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William Faulkner
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William Fichtner
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William Forsythe
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William Frawley
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William Friedkin
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William Gibson
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William Girdler
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William Goldman
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William Green
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William Haines
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William Hanna
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William Hart
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William Henderson
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William Holden
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William Hole
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William Hurt
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William Jefferson
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William Katt
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William Keighley
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William Kowalchuk
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William Lustig
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William Macy
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William Malone
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William Marshall
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William Mcgann
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William Mcnamara
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William Menzies
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William Naud
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William Nigh
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William Petersen
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William Powell
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William Seiter
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William Shakespeare
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William Wellman
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William Wiard
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William Windsor
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William Witney
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William Wittliff
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William Wyler
People
William + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with William 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
William: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named William?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,335,115 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for William 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 147 US residents.
Is William a common name?
We classify William as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,205,026 babies have been registered with this name.
When was William most popular?
The single biggest year for William was 1947, when 67,155 babies received the name. The fact that the average living William is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was William in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,240,112 people with the name William, or 741.69 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6 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 William 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 William?
In the 2020 Census sex table, William appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,240,114 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 William?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named William is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Hispanic (5.1%). 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 William most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named William in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.3% (1,866,221 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 William in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is William a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as William 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 William still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded William 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 William 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 have the name William?
See how many people have the name William on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.