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Williams

#3,085 in 2025Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Williams has been given to 6,150 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #3,085 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1950, with 86 recorded.

Babies named Williams, 2025

1 in 82,900

Williams over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Williams: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Williams means

Williams is a given name.

The naming story behind Williams

Wikidata records Williams as a male given name. The entity identifier is Q50841956, 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, 6,126 boys were recorded with the name Williams between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 86 in 1950; its best national rank was #515 in 1887.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,133 in 2020 to #3,085 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,718 in 2015 to #3,085 in 2025.

In the United States, 24 girls were recorded with the name Williams between 1958 and 1981. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1958; its best national rank was #5,391 in 1958.

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 Williams?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 82,900
40 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 42,700
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,085
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
57,449 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Williams 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 57,449 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Williams. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Williamss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Williams was born before 1960 — so the typical Williams is around 65 today.

Median birth year
1960
About 65 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
9.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
20.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,676
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 9.9% of all recorded uses (606).

Is Williams 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
−532
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+48
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−367
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.89×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
46.5%
Peak was 1950 (86)
Years since peak
75
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#515
1887

Spellings of Williams

Williams is not the most common spelling — William is, with 98.4% against Williams's 0.14%.

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 Williams is used

Across 1910–2025, Williams was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 5,882 boys, against 1 in 39,786 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

017 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 5,882
  2. 2Alabama1 in 16,667
  3. 3Georgia1 in 16,667
  4. 4Louisiana1 in 25,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 33,333
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 33,333
  7. 7South Carolina1 in 33,333
  8. 8Texas1 in 33,333

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. Williams has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Williams around the world

Where Williams 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
    2008–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • France
    1900–2025
    #3,017
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1994–2019
    #2,943
    in 2019
  • South Australia
    1973–1973
    #454
    in 1973

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 Williams

People whose public names include Williams, 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.

Williams in other languages

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

William

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

Williams by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,085
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 48
Best rank ever
#515
1887
Peak year
1950
86 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,126
Count in 2025
40

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,391
1958
Peak year
1958
7 that year
First recorded
1958
Last recorded
1981
All-time count
24
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Williams

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

WilfredoWillianWilfordWilberWilderWiltonWilhelmWillamWillemWilfredWilmerWilburnWilbertWillyWilliardWiliamWillliamWillardWillaimWileyWilfridWillsonWilsonWillis

Names with a curve like Williams

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

HoseaFritzFranklynEvansStantonRichmondLovellTrinidadLeanderLemuelRaleighDenton

Sibling names for Williams

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 Williams

Top names of 1950, Williams's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1887Boys' names starting with W