Billee
Feminine · “A spelling of Billie”
Billee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 614 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Billee is Billie spelled with a double e, a mid-century way of turning a boy's nickname into a girl's name. The Billies of the twentieth century were formidable: a singer who took the name from a silent star, and a tennis champion who beat a hustler in front of ninety million viewers.
How old is the name Billee?
Billee first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Billee alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 300 people named Billee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Billee most popular?
Billee peaked in 1929, reaching #1766 nationally. See the whole 1929 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From William to Billee
The story of Billee
Eleanora Fagan, a teenager in Baltimore, took the name Billie from the silent-film star Billie Dove, whom she admired, and as Billie Holiday became one of the greatest jazz singers who ever lived. In 1973 Billie Jean King, the world's best woman tennis player, beat the fifty-five-year-old former champion Bobby Riggs in straight sets in the Houston Astrodome, in a match billed as the Battle of the Sexes and watched on television around the world. Billee, with its double e, was one of the mid-century spellings that marked Billie as a girl's name.
Meaning
A spelling of Billie, a pet form of William or Wilhelmina
Billie comes from Bill, the pet form of William, 'resolute protector'; for girls it often shortened Wilhelmina.
How the name formed
- William
- Bill
- Billie
- Billee
Related forms: Billie
Pronouncing Billee
BIL-ee
Two syllables with the stress on the first.
Nicknames for Billee
Limited
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 195622 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1766reached in 1929
- Change vs 2021
- +16.7%7 in 2024, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Billee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Billie in English — spelling variant
Billees among us
people named Billee are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Billee sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Friendly and instantly familiar.
- Carries remarkable women in its history.
- The double e marks it as a girl's spelling.
- People will write Billie or Billy.
- Some will assume a boy on paper.
- The spelling is recorded for a handful of boys, but it is overwhelmingly a girl's name.
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Billee
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Billees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Billee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Billee in 2025?
- Billee is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Billee with classmates?
- Billee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Barbara#968 · Betty#1113 · Brenda#1525 · Beverly#1016 · Brittany#928 · Bonnie#396 · Brianna#222 · Bertha#4546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Billee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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