Mary Williams
There are approximately 8,225 people named Mary Williams living in the United States today. That makes this name combination rare, occurring at a rate of about 1 in 41,672 Americans.
This estimate combines SSA birth records for the first name Mary with Census Bureau frequency data for the surname Williams. Below you will find a breakdown of both names, including popularity trends, gender data, and ancestry information.
Expected bearers
8,225
1 in 41,672
Named Mary
1.5M
Alive today
Named Williams
1.9M
Alive today
US population
343M
Denominator
Estimated living: 1.5M
Rarity: Very Common
Gender: Female
Peak year: 1921
Average age: 65
Estimated bearers: 1.9M
Rarity: Very Common
Census rank: #3
Per 100K: 550.97
Top ancestry: Black (47.7%)
First name trend
Mary: popularity over time
Year-by-year SSA birth registrations for the first name Mary. The peak year was 1921 with 74,171 births. The average person named Mary today is 65 years old.
Babies born per year
Ethnicity
Ancestry of the Williams surname
Self-reported race and ethnicity breakdown for people with the surname Williams, from the 2010 US Census Bureau. The largest group is Black at 47.7%.
- Black or African American47.7%
- White45.8%
- Two or more races2.8%
- Hispanic or Latino2.5%
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8%
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5%
Methodology
How we calculated this
The first name Mary has a living-bearer frequency of 0.4355% of the US population, based on 1,492,757 estimated living Americans carrying this first name (from SSA birth records going back to 1880, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables).
The surname Williams appears at a rate of 550.97 per 100,000 residents in the 2010 Census Bureau surname file, which translates to a frequency of 0.5510%.
Multiplying these two independent frequencies against the current US population of 342,754,338 gives an expected count of approximately 8,225 people with the full name Mary Williams. This assumes statistical independence between first and last names, which is a simplification but produces reasonable estimates for most combinations.
Related
Other people named Mary
Related
Other people with the surname Williams
FAQ
Mary Williams: questions and answers
How many people are named Mary Williams?
We estimate approximately 8,225 people in the United States share the full name Mary Williams. That works out to about 1 in 41,672 Americans. This is calculated by combining the first-name frequency (0.4355%) with the surname frequency (550.97 per 100K) against the current US population.
How rare is the name Mary Williams?
We classify Mary Williams as "Rare". About 1 in 41,672 Americans share this exact first and last name combination.
Is Mary a male or female name?
Mary is predominantly female. Out of 4,154,332 total SSA registrations, 0.4% were male and 99.6% were female. See the full Mary profile for detailed gender data.
Where does this data come from?
First-name data comes from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files (1880 to 2024). Surname data comes from the 2010 US Census Bureau decennial surname tables. Living-bearer estimates use CDC actuarial life tables to adjust for mortality. Read the full methodology.