Primarily a boy's name · 100% boys
Origin: EnglishWilliam is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066, and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era.
From Wikipedia
In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of William yields these three numbers — a playful read on the name's character.
William's scale dwarfs nearly every other name in this batch: 4,205,026 total US births since 1880, and it held the #2 national rank in 1880 itself, the earliest year in the data — meaning the name was already firmly established well over a century before this dataset begins its count.
Its 1947 peak of 67,001 births in a single year reflects an era when a much smaller set of names covered most babies born. William now ranks #10 with 10,596 births in 2024, 37% below its count from ten years prior, but that has to be read against a name that's simply operating in a far more fragmented naming landscape than it once was.
The famous-bearer list underscores the name's long reach — William Shakespeare, Stephen Hawking, Bertrand Russell — literary and scientific figures spanning five centuries. Few currently top-ten names carry that kind of unbroken historical weight while still ranking among America's most-used names today.
Why did you choose this name — or what does it mean to you? Approved stories appear on this page.
→ See names similar to William · Compare William with another name → · Popular names of the 1940s · Boys names starting with W
Rank is among all boys' names registered that year.
| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 9,532 | #2 |
| 1881 | 8,524 | #2 |
| 1882 | 9,298 | #2 |
| 1883 | 8,387 | #2 |
| 1884 | 8,897 | #2 |
| 1885 | 8,044 | #2 |
| 1886 | 8,252 | #2 |
| 1887 | 7,470 | #2 |
| 1888 | 8,705 | #2 |
| 1889 | 7,772 | #2 |
| 1890 | 7,494 | #2 |
| 1891 | 6,763 | #2 |
| 1892 | 7,782 | #2 |
| 1893 | 7,223 | #2 |
| 1894 | 7,274 | #2 |
| 1895 | 7,277 | #2 |
| 1896 | 7,747 | #2 |
| 1897 | 7,198 | #2 |
| 1898 | 7,400 | #2 |
| 1899 | 6,086 | #2 |
| 1900 | 8,579 | #2 |
| 1901 | 5,990 | #2 |
| 1902 | 6,617 | #2 |
| 1903 | 6,311 | #2 |
| 1904 | 6,416 | #2 |
| 1905 | 6,495 | #2 |
| 1906 | 6,566 | #2 |
| 1907 | 6,904 | #2 |
| 1908 | 7,529 | #2 |
| 1909 | 7,913 | #2 |
| 1910 | 8,844 | #3 |
| 1911 | 10,593 | #2 |
| 1912 | 19,626 | #2 |
| 1913 | 23,538 | #2 |
| 1914 | 29,753 | #2 |
| 1915 | 38,563 | #2 |
| 1916 | 40,418 | #2 |
| 1917 | 42,422 | #2 |
| 1918 | 45,291 | #2 |
| 1919 | 43,970 | #2 |
| 1920 | 50,146 | #2 |
| 1921 | 51,862 | #3 |
| 1922 | 51,112 | #3 |
| 1923 | 52,136 | #3 |
| 1924 | 53,506 | #3 |
| 1925 | 53,309 | #3 |
| 1926 | 51,922 | #4 |
| 1927 | 51,476 | #4 |
| 1928 | 49,119 | #4 |
| 1929 | 47,814 | #4 |
| 1930 | 47,271 | #4 |
| 1931 | 43,280 | #4 |
| 1932 | 42,127 | #4 |
| 1933 | 39,047 | #4 |
| 1934 | 40,176 | #4 |
| 1935 | 40,200 | #4 |
| 1936 | 39,398 | #4 |
| 1937 | 40,724 | #4 |
| 1938 | 42,432 | #4 |
| 1939 | 42,073 | #4 |
| 1940 | 44,781 | #4 |
| 1941 | 47,797 | #4 |
| 1942 | 54,891 | #4 |
| 1943 | 55,904 | #4 |
| 1944 | 52,373 | #4 |
| 1945 | 50,218 | #4 |
| 1946 | 60,030 | #4 |
| 1947 | 67,001 | #4 |
| 1948 | 61,970 | #4 |
| 1949 | 61,504 | #4 |
| 1950 | 60,679 | #6 |
| 1951 | 62,783 | #6 |
| 1952 | 63,039 | #6 |
| 1953 | 61,830 | #6 |
| 1954 | 61,431 | #6 |
| 1955 | 59,985 | #6 |
| 1956 | 58,990 | #6 |
| 1957 | 56,850 | #6 |
| 1958 | 54,254 | #6 |
| 1959 | 51,385 | #7 |
| 1960 | 49,344 | #7 |
| 1961 | 48,035 | #7 |
| 1962 | 44,859 | #7 |
| 1963 | 44,444 | #7 |
| 1964 | 44,223 | #7 |
| 1965 | 40,111 | #6 |
| 1966 | 38,240 | #6 |
| 1967 | 37,619 | #6 |
| 1968 | 36,928 | #6 |
| 1969 | 37,608 | #6 |
| 1970 | 38,889 | #7 |
| 1971 | 35,416 | #7 |
| 1972 | 30,512 | #9 |
| 1973 | 28,015 | #9 |
| 1974 | 26,977 | #10 |
| 1975 | 25,562 | #10 |
| 1976 | 24,433 | #11 |
| 1977 | 24,757 | #12 |
| 1978 | 24,174 | #13 |
| 1979 | 24,680 | #13 |
| 1980 | 25,638 | #14 |
| 1981 | 24,801 | #15 |
| 1982 | 25,606 | #15 |
| 1983 | 25,396 | #16 |
| 1984 | 24,902 | #16 |
| 1985 | 24,608 | #16 |
| 1986 | 24,333 | #15 |
| 1987 | 24,203 | #15 |
| 1988 | 24,125 | #16 |
| 1989 | 24,674 | #15 |
| 1990 | 24,909 | #16 |
| 1991 | 23,858 | #19 |
| 1992 | 23,066 | #20 |
| 1993 | 22,219 | #18 |
| 1994 | 21,491 | #19 |
| 1995 | 20,160 | #20 |
| 1996 | 20,544 | #18 |
| 1997 | 20,020 | #19 |
| 1998 | 20,835 | #14 |
| 1999 | 20,716 | #14 |
| 2000 | 20,669 | #11 |
| 2001 | 20,110 | #10 |
| 2002 | 20,136 | #11 |
| 2003 | 19,999 | #11 |
| 2004 | 20,235 | #8 |
| 2005 | 19,060 | #11 |
| 2006 | 18,963 | #10 |
| 2007 | 18,894 | #8 |
| 2008 | 18,403 | #8 |
| 2009 | 17,935 | #5 |
| 2010 | 17,071 | #5 |
| 2011 | 17,359 | #3 |
| 2012 | 16,914 | #5 |
| 2013 | 16,665 | #5 |
| 2014 | 16,847 | #5 |
| 2015 | 15,945 | #5 |
| 2016 | 15,808 | #3 |
| 2017 | 15,042 | #3 |
| 2018 | 14,645 | #3 |
| 2019 | 13,649 | #4 |
| 2020 | 12,673 | #5 |
| 2021 | 12,166 | #6 |
| 2022 | 11,349 | #6 |
| 2023 | 10,653 | #10 |
| 2024 | 10,596 | #10 |
