Guilherme
Masculine · “Germanic wil and helm”
Latin had no w sound. When Germanic names arrived in the Romance world, every w had to be replaced, and the substitute chosen was gu. That single sound change turned Wilhelm into Guillaume, Guillermo, Guglielmo and Guilherme, and it is why war and guerre are the same word.
How old is the name Guilherme?
Guilherme first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Guilherme alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 500 people named Guilherme are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Guilherme most popular?
Guilherme peaked in 2006, reaching #2881 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 6,029 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Willahelm to Guilherme
The story of Guilherme
The w-to-gu substitution is one of the most consistent sound laws in Romance, and it produced dozens of doublets in English because English later borrowed both the Norman and the Central French versions of the same words. Warranty and guarantee are one word twice. So are ward and guard, warden and guardian, wile and guile, wage and gage, and William and Guillaume. Norman French kept a w sound in some positions, so Norman borrowings into English came in with w while later Parisian borrowings came in with gu, and English kept both, usually assigning them slightly different meanings. Guilherme therefore sits at the far end of a chain that also produced the most common man's name in medieval England. The Portuguese and English forms look nothing alike and are the same name.
Meaning
Germanic wil and helm, will and helmet
Guilherme is the Portuguese form of William, from Germanic Willahelm, joining wil, will or desire, to helm, helmet or protection. The Gu- opening is the regular Romance treatment of Germanic w, which Latin speakers could not pronounce. The name entered Iberia with the Franks and the Normans and has been standard in Portuguese since the middle ages. The American peak is 2006, with Brazilian migration.
How the name formed
- Willahelm
- Guilhelm
- Guilherme
Related forms: William · Guillermo · Guillaume · Guglielmo
Pronouncing Guilherme
gee-LYEHR-mee
Three syllables, stress on the second. The gu is a hard g, the lh is the sound in million, and Brazilian Portuguese says the final e as ee. European Portuguese says it much shorter.
Nicknames for Guilherme
Moderate
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
- 1921
- Most boys named
- 200639 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2881reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- +60.0%8 in 2025, from 5
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.
Guilherme in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- William in English — same name
- Guillermo in Spanish — same name
- Guillaume in French — same name
- Guglielmo in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Massachusetts.
Guilhermes among us
people named Guilherme are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Guilherme
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nolin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Guilherme's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nolin climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nolin's path sketches the road Guilherme is walking now.
Guilherme sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Guilherme beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Guilherme in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Gui is a short, established nickname.
- It is one of the most common names in Brazil and Portugal.
- The English equivalent, William, is available on documents.
- The lh digraph has no English equivalent and will be mispronounced.
- Three syllables and nine letters is a lot to spell out.
- English readers will not connect it to William.
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What they receive
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Guilherme
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Guilhermes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Guilherme are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Guilherme in 2025?
- Guilherme ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Guilherme?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Guilherme — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Guilherme with classmates?
- Guilherme will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Guilherme
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Guilherme? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Guilherme and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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