Willian
Variant spelling of William, a masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute protector".
Name Census estimates that about 2,217 living Americans carry the first name Willian. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Willian today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willian births was 1929 (84 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willian. 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
2.2K
~ 1 in 154,603 Americans
Peak year
1929
84 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,859
Tracked since 1880
Census
Willian in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,701 people with the first name Willian, which placed it at #2,509 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
#2,509
National first-name rank
People counted
9.7K
9,701 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Willian
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willian is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.4%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Willian 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 Willian at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.4% · 6,539
- Hispanic or Latino22.4% · 2,170
- Black or African American6.5% · 633
- Two or more races1.8% · 172
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 136
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 51
Gender
Gender distribution for Willian
Out of the 4,072 babies given the name Willian 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.
Willian as a male name
- Ranked #5,859 in 2024
- 16 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1929 (84 births)
Willian as a female name
- Ranked #10,230 in 1974
- 5 female births in 1974
- Peak: 1925 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willian appears almost entirely male. Of the 9,695 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Willian: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willian from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 610 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
Willian 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 Willian during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Willians live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Willian, while Kentucky, New Jersey, Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Willian
The name Willian has its origins in the Germanic language, deriving from the Old German name Willahelm or Willelm. It is a compound name, with the first part "Will" meaning "will" or "desire," and the second part "helm" meaning "helmet" or "protection." The name essentially translates to "resolute protector" or "determined guardian."
In the early Middle Ages, the name spread across various regions of Europe, including France, where it evolved into the French form Guillaume, and England, where it became William. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 played a significant role in popularizing the name William throughout the British Isles.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Willian can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, including Willelm and Willelmus.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Willian, often in its more common forms, such as William or Guillaume. One of the most famous was William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087), the first Norman king of England, who led the conquest of England in 1066 and established the Norman Dynasty.
Another significant figure was William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the renowned English playwright and poet, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and one of the most influential figures in world literature.
In the realm of science, William Herschel (1738-1822) was a German-born British astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus and made numerous contributions to the field of astronomy.
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was an English politician and philanthropist who played a pivotal role in the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), an English Romantic poet, is considered one of the most important literary figures of the 19th century and a key figure in the Romantic movement.
While the name Willian is not as common as its variants, such as William or Guillaume, it has maintained a presence throughout history, carrying the essence of determination, protection, and resilience.
People
Willian + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willian 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
Willian: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willian?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,217 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willian 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 154,603 US residents.
Is Willian a common name?
We classify Willian as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,072 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willian most popular?
The single biggest year for Willian was 1929, when 84 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willian 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 Willian in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,701 people with the name Willian, or 3.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,509 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 Willian 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 Willian?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willian appears almost entirely male. Of the 9,695 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Willian?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willian is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.4%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Willian most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Willian in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.4% (6,539 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 Willian in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Willian a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Willian 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 Willian still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Willian 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 Willian 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 Willian?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.