Wilhelmine
Feminine · “will and helmet”
Wilhelmine is the German feminine of Wilhelm, and its most memorable bearer left a building behind. Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, elder sister of Frederick the Great, commissioned the town's baroque opera house, a theater of painted and gilded wood that still stands and is now a World Heritage Site.
How old is the name Wilhelmine?
Wilhelmine was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Wilhelmine alive today was born around 1904, making them about 121 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Wilhelmine are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Wilhelmine most popular?
Wilhelmine peaked in 1884, reaching #583 nationally. See the whole 1884 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Old High German willo + helm to Wilhelmine
The story of Wilhelmine
Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine was born a Prussian princess in 1709 and married into the small court of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. She made that court a musical one. She composed an opera of her own, Argenore, staged in 1740, and she commissioned the Margravial Opera House, built in the 1740s with an interior designed by the Galli Bibiena family, the leading Italian theater designers of the age. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list in 2012. Her memoirs, written in French, are still read for their sharp picture of the Prussian court she grew up in.
Meaning
will and helmet
From Wilhelm, which joins the Old High German willo, will or desire, to helm, a helmet and so protection. The -ine ending is the German feminine that also made Karoline and Ernestine.
How the name formed
- Old High German willo + helm
- Wilhelm
- Wilhelmine
Related forms: Wilhelmina · Vilhelmina · Guillemette
Pronouncing Wilhelmine
vil-hel-MEE-nuh
German says the W as a v and ends on a light -neh. English speakers usually say wil-hel-MEEN, as if the final e were silent; either is understood.
Nicknames for Wilhelmine
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 189620 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #583reached in 1884
- Change vs 1937
- +20.0%6 in 2023, 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.
Wilhelmine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wilhelmina in Dutch — related form
- Vilhelmina in Swedish — related form
- Guillemette in French — related form
Wilhelmines among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Wilhelmine are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Wilhelmine 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
- A royal bearer who was also a composer and a builder, not only a name in a family tree.
- Minna, Mina and Wilma give three ready short forms at different levels of formality.
- The stress falls on the long ee, which keeps a four-syllable name easy to say.
- It is long, most Americans will need it spelled out, and whether the final e is sounded will be left to guesswork.
- Many listeners will hear Wilhelmina, the Dutch form, and write it that way; the correction is small and easy to make.
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Wilhelmine
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Wilhelmines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Wilhelmine are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Wilhelmine in 2025?
- Wilhelmine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Wilhelmine with classmates?
- Wilhelmine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More W names
The most-given names starting with W, all years combined.
Wanda#5917 · Wendy#1341 · Willie#10107 · Wilma#3645 · Whitney#1043 · Willow#44 · Winifred#922 · Willa#422
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wilhelmine? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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