Willian
Masculine · “resolute protection”
Willian is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,074 boys against 18 girls since 1880.
Willian is William with one letter moved, and it is two things at once: an old American variant that appears in nineteenth-century records, and the standard Brazilian Portuguese spelling of the English name, which is very common there. Behind both is a Germanic compound about will and protection.
How old is the name Willian?
Willian was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Willian alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 2,200 people named Willian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Willian most popular?
Willian peaked in 1890, reaching #566 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 4,291 places below that high. See the whole 1890 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Willahelm to Willian
The story of Willian
William was the conqueror's name, and after 1066 it took over English naming so completely that a large share of medieval men carried it. Every European language has a version. Brazil took the English spelling in the twentieth century, when English-language names became fashionable there, and Portuguese orthography reshaped it: Willian, Wilian and Uilian all appear, and Willian is the commonest. The name also turns up in American records much earlier, where it is usually a clerk's or a family's variant of William rather than a separate name.
Meaning
resolute protection; will and helmet
Germanic Willahelm: wil, will or desire, joined to helm, a helmet and by extension protection. The Normans carried it to England, where it became the most-given male name for centuries.
How the name formed
- Willahelm
- William
- Willian
Related forms: William · Guilherme · Guillermo · Wilhelm · Guillaume · Guglielmo
Pronouncing Willian
WIL-yun
Two syllables, stress in front, said almost exactly like William. Brazilian Portuguese says WEE-lee-an with three, giving the i its own beat.
Nicknames for Willian
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 boys named
- 193177 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #566reached in 1890
- Change vs 2022
- +17.6%20 in 2025, from 17
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.
Willian in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- William in English — spelling variant
- Guilherme in Portuguese — same name
- Guillermo in Spanish — same name
- Wilhelm in German — same name
- Guillaume in French — same name
- Guglielmo in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Virginia.
Willians among us
people named Willian are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Willian
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Willian
- #4857
- Willian on the 2025 chart
- #901
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Willian went to 20 boys in 2025, but Wilian is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 27, which makes it the 901st most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,956 places above the chart.
- Willian20
- Wilian7
About 1 boy in 63,262 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 85,404 for Willian 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
Willian 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
Willian beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Willian in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is the same name as William, so it is legible everywhere in the world.
- Will and Liam are both available as short forms, and both stand alone.
- It has a documented history that is among the longest and best recorded in Europe.
- American forms will correct it to William automatically, and that will not stop.
- It looks like a typing error to English readers, though it is standard in Brazil.
- The name it comes from is extremely common, so the sound is everywhere.
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Willian
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Willians are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Willian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Willian?
- Willian is the most-used spelling in US records — 20 of the 27 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Wilian.
- How popular is the name Willian in 2025?
- Willian ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Willian?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Willian — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Willian with classmates?
- Willian will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Willian
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Willian? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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