Willow
A feminine name meaning "slender, graceful tree" of Old English origin.
Roughly 59,457 people in the United States go by the first name Willow, which ranks #41 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly female name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Willow today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willow births was 2021 (5,229 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Karina (59,428).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willow. 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 Willow with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Willow is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 442 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Willow is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
59K
~ 1 in 5,765 Americans
Peak year
2021
5,229 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#41
Tracked since 1890
Census
Willow in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 33,717 people with the first name Willow, which placed it at #1,168 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
#1,168
National first-name rank
People counted
34K
33,717 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
11.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Willow
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willow is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.4%) and Hispanic (6.7%). 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 Willow 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 Willow at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.4% · 26,428
- Two or more races8.4% · 2,843
- Hispanic or Latino6.7% · 2,247
- Black or African American4.3% · 1,463
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 372
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 364
Gender
Gender distribution for Willow
Out of the 60,727 babies given the name Willow since 1880, 99.3% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Willow as a male name
- Ranked #3,770 in 2024
- 30 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (48 births)
Willow as a female name
- Ranked #41 in 2024
- 4,653 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (5,193 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willow appears almost entirely female. Of the 33,715 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Willow: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willow from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 27,227 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Willow 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 Willow during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Willows live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Willow, while District of Columbia, Hawaii, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,133 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Willow
The name Willow has its origins in the Old English word 'welig' which referred to the willow tree. Its meaning is associated with slender grace, resilience, and flexibility. The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages and was particularly common in England, where willow trees were abundant.
The willow tree held significant symbolism in ancient cultures. In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the willow represented fertility, death, and new life. The ancient Greeks and Romans also revered the willow and associated it with mourning and the underworld. Willow branches were often used in funeral rites and ceremonies.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Willow can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, where it appeared as a surname. The name likely transitioned from a surname to a given name during the late Middle Ages.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Willow. One of the earliest recorded examples is Willow Rosenberg, a fictional character from the popular television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," introduced in 1997. In literature, Willow Ufgood was the main character in the 1988 fantasy film "Willow," directed by Ron Howard.
Another notable Willow was Willow Palin, the daughter of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, born in 1994. In the music industry, Willow Smith, the daughter of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, has gained recognition as a singer and songwriter, having been born in 2000.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Willow as a given name dates back to the late 19th century, when Willow Cunard, an American vaudeville performer, was born in 1888. She was known for her comedic performances and appeared in several films during the early 20th century.
People
Willow + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willow 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
Willow: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willow?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59,457 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willow 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 5,765 US residents.
Is Willow a common name?
We classify Willow as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 60,727 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willow most popular?
The single biggest year for Willow was 2021, when 5,229 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willow is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Willow in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 33,717 people with the name Willow, or 11.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,168 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 Willow 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 Willow?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willow appears almost entirely female. Of the 33,715 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Willow?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willow is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.4%) and Hispanic (6.7%). 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 Willow most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Willow in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.4% (26,428 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 Willow in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Willow a female name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Willow 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.
Is Willow still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Willow 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 Willow 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 Willow?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.