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Willam

#13,794 in 2025Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Willam has been given to 3,516 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #13,794 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1959, with 76 recorded.

Babies named Willam, 2025

1 in 663,000

Willam over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Willam: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Willam means

Willam is a given name.

The naming story behind Willam

Wikidata records Willam as a male given name. The entity identifier is Q134188783, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,516 boys were recorded with the name Willam between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 76 in 1959; its best national rank was #525 in 1880.

Over 10 years its rank rose, from #13,937 in 2015 to #13,794 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Willam?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#13,794
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Willam sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Willam. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Willams were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Willam was born before 1943 — so the typical Willam is around 82 today.

Median birth year
1943
About 82 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
15.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.3%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,431
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 15.9% of all recorded uses (560).

Is Willam rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,530
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
+143
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.00×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
6.6%
Peak was 1959 (76)
Years since peak
66
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#525
1880

Spellings of Willam

Willam is not the most common spelling — William is, with 86.4% against Willam's 0.07%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Willam is used

Across 1910–2025, Willam was most concentrated in Tennessee — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 227,969 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Tennessee1 in 50,000
  2. 2Alabama1 in 100,000
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 100,000
  4. 4Georgia1 in 100,000
  5. 5Kentucky1 in 100,000
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 100,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 100,000
  8. 8California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Willam has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Willam around the world

Where Willam ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2010–2010
    #4,678
    in 2010
  • France
    1937–2008
    #5,194
    in 2008
  • South Australia
    1984–1984
    #455
    in 1984

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Willam

People whose public names include Willam, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Willam in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Willam. Linked forms have their own page here.

WillemWilliam

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Willam by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#13,794
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#525
1880
Peak year
1959
76 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,516
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Willam

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

WillemWilberWilderWillyWillianWiltonWiliamWilhelmWilmerWilmarWilfordWillowWilliamsWilkesWileyWilfredoWilsonWilmanWilianWillisWilburWillaimWilverWilfred

Names with a curve like Willam

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Willam, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MeltonWymanLoranWaymanEzellHarrellHaywardLenwoodDeaneWaymonAlonzaRayford

Sibling names for Willam

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Willam

Top names of 1959, Willam's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880Boys' names starting with W