Wiliam
Masculine · “resolute protection”
The single l looks like a modern shortcut and is closer to the original. Norman scribes wrote Willelm, Wilelm, Willam and Wiliam more or less as they pleased, and the doubled l we now insist on is simply the spelling that won when English froze.
How old is the name Wiliam?
Wiliam first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Wiliam alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 900 people named Wiliam are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wiliam most popular?
Wiliam peaked in 1881, reaching #866 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 5,580 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Willahelm to Wiliam
The story of Wiliam
William arrived in England in 1066 with the man who took it, and within a century it was the commonest men's name in the country; medieval English records are so thick with Williams that the clerks had to distinguish them by trade and village. Spelling was not standardized until the eighteenth century, so the same man appears as Willelmus in Latin, William in English and Guillaume in French within one document set. Wiliam with one l is part of that older latitude, and it survives in American records of the nineteenth century as a genuine variant rather than an error, with its best year in 1881. It is also the standard Welsh spelling.
Meaning
resolute protection, will and helmet
From the Germanic elements wil, will or desire, and helm, a helmet and thence protection, giving something like resolute protector. Both elements are secure and both are extremely common in Germanic naming. The number of l's in the modern spelling is a convention of print rather than a fact about the name.
How the name formed
- Willahelm
- Willelm
- William
- Wiliam
Related forms: Wiliam · Guillaume · Wilhelm · Guillermo · Guglielmo
Pronouncing Wiliam
WIL-yum
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The single l changes nothing at all in sound; Wiliam and William are identical aloud.
Nicknames for Wiliam
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 198525 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #866reached in 1881
- Change vs 2023
- +160.0%13 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.
Wiliam in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wiliam in Welsh — same name
- Guillaume in French — same name
- Wilhelm in German — same name
- Guillermo in Spanish — same name
- Guglielmo in Italian — same name
Wiliams among us
people named Wiliam are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Wiliam
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Wiliam
- #6446
- Wiliam on the 2025 chart
- #12
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Wiliam went to 13 boys in 2025, but William is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 10,565, which makes it the 12th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,434 places above the chart.
- William10,545
- Wiliam13
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 162 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 131,390 for Wiliam itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Wiliam 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
Wiliam beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Wiliam in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the deepest name histories in English, with a settled two-part meaning.
- Will, Bill and Liam are three short forms that sound nothing alike.
- The single l is a genuine historical spelling rather than a modern invention.
- William is the standard everywhere and the second l will be added for you.
- The single-l form is read as a typing error by most people.
- It is one of the most common names in the language, in every spelling.
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Wiliam
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Wiliams are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Wiliam are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Wiliam?
- Wiliam is one of 2 recorded spellings. William is the more common one — 10,545 births in 2025 against 13 for Wiliam.
- How popular is the name Wiliam in 2025?
- Wiliam ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Wiliam?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Wiliam — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Wiliam with classmates?
- Wiliam will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Wiliam
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wiliam? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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