Willard
Feminine · “Bold will”
Willard is given to boys far more often — 77,658 boys against 884 girls since 1880. See Willard as a boy name
Willard is a Germanic compound with an ending that English has treated very badly elsewhere — the same suffix that turns up in drunkard, sluggard and coward, and that originally meant nothing of the kind.
How old is the name Willard?
Willard first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Willard alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. About 100 people named Willard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Willard most popular?
Willard peaked in 1905, reaching #1011 nationally. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Wilheard to Willard
The story of Willard
The -ard ending arrived in English from Frankish, attached to names, where it simply intensified: hardy, strong, very much so. Then French started using it on ordinary words with a sour edge — a person who does something too much — and English borrowed that habit as well, producing drunkard, laggard, dullard, coward and a dozen others. So the same suffix sits in a respectable name and in a series of insults, with nothing to distinguish them but the century of borrowing. The name's best American bearer taught mathematics: Emma Willard opened a school for young women at a time when the accepted view was that they could not learn the subjects men studied, wrote the textbooks herself, and funded the building by petitioning a state legislature that refused her.
Meaning
Bold will, resolute
The elements are wil, meaning will or desire, and hard, meaning brave, hardy or strong. The combination describes determination, and it is one of a long list of Germanic names built from the same two-element system.
How the name formed
- Wilheard
- Willard
Pronouncing Willard
WIL-erd
Two syllables, stress at the front. The ending is unstressed, closer to erd than to ard.
Nicknames for Willard
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 191741 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1011reached in 1905
- Change vs 1968
- 0.0%5 in 1969, 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.
Willards among us
people named Willard 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
Willard 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
- The meaning is settled, strong and easy to explain.
- Will gives it one of the most usable short forms in English.
- It is a genuine old Germanic name rather than a modern surname name.
- The name is closely tied to an older American generation and has not yet returned.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though the boys hold nearly all of it.
- A well-known film gave the name to a boy with a pet rat, which some children will mention.
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What they receive
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Willard
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Willards are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Willard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Willard in 2025?
- Willard is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Willard with classmates?
- Willard 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 Willard? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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