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Willem

#2,601 in 2025Boys' name

Will (n.) + helmet, through *Willihelm

Willem has been given to 2,840 babies in the U.S. since 1916. In 2025 it ranked #2,601 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2003, with 122 recorded.

Babies named Willem, 2025

1 in 65,000

Willem over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Willem: meaning, origin, and history

Will (n.) + helmet, through *Willihelm

Proto-Germanic

What Willem means

Willem belongs to the name family reached through Willem → Willem → Willem → *Willihelm. Its meaning is “will (n.) + helmet”.

Origin, language, and formation

Willem is used in Afrikaans, Dutch and Middle Dutch. Its origins include Proto-Germanic.

Willem comes through Dutch Willem and Middle Dutch Willem.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include William, Willem and *Willihelm.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Dutch, Willem is pronounced /ˈʋɪ.ləm/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,840 boys were recorded with the name Willem between 1916 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 122 in 2003; its best national rank was #1,207 in 2003.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,288 in 2020 to #2,601 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,108 in 2015 to #2,601 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Willem?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 65,000
51 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 33,500
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,601
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
45,058 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Willem 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 45,058 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Willem. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Willems were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Willem was born before 2006 — so the typical Willem is around 19 today.

Median birth year
2006
About 19 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
35.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
70.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,804
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 35.3% of all recorded uses (1,002).

Is Willem 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
+70
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−313
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−493
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.76×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
41.8%
Peak was 2003 (122)
Years since peak
22
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
12.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,207
2003

Spellings of Willem

Willem is not the most common spelling — William is, with 87.0% against Willem's 0.06%.

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 Willem is used

Across 2016–2025, Willem was most concentrated in Michigan — about 1 in 12,500 boys, against 1 in 39,757 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in 100,000).

18 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Michigan1 in 12,500
  2. 2New York1 in 25,000
  3. 3California1 in 33,333
  4. 4Illinois1 in 50,000
  5. 5Minnesota1 in 50,000
  6. 6Texas1 in 50,000
  7. 7Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  8. 8Florida1 in 100,000

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.

Willem around the world

Where Willem 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
    1996–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • France
    1926–2025
    #2,028
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,232
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1956–2013
    #239
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Willem

People whose public names include Willem, 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.

Willem in other languages

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

BillWillWilleGwilymWilhemWiliamWillamWilhelmWilliamGuilhermeGuillaumeGuillermoVilémViljemVilmosGuillemGuillénGwyllymVilhelmGwilhermWillhelmGhilhermeGuglielmoGulielmus

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

Willem by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,601
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 313
Best rank ever
#1,207
2003
Peak year
2003
122 that year
First recorded
1916
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,840
Count in 2025
51

Names similar to Willem

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

WillamWiliamWilberWilderWillyWillianWiltonWilhelmHarlemWilmarWilmerWillowShulemWilfordWilkesWilliamsWilmanWilianSalemWillaimWileyWilverWilfridWilfredo

Names with a curve like Willem

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

DaylanYonatanAmanIzaakSahilSebastienYashLucAshwinDaylonKollinKamil

Sibling names for Willem

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 Willem

Top names of 2003, Willem's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2003Boys' names starting with WAfrikaans Boy NamesAfrikaans NamesDutch Boy NamesWilliam Variations & Nicknames