Willma
Feminine · “will and helmet”
Willma doubles a letter in a shortened German name and the doubling changes nothing audible. The English word its front spells is doing a job in the language that most people never notice: it is how English makes a future tense at all.
How old is the name Willma?
Willma first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Willma alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 200 people named Willma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Willma most popular?
Willma peaked in 1902, reaching #1438 nationally. See the whole 1902 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Wilhelmina to Willma
The story of Willma
English has no future tense. What it has instead is a set of auxiliary verbs standing in for one, and the main one is a verb about wanting: will is the same word as the noun meaning volition, and it originally meant to want or intend, which is why I will go once meant I intend to go and still does in certain contexts. Other languages built their futures out of other things. The Romance languages fused a verb meaning to have onto the infinitive — French je chanterai is chanter plus ai, I have to sing. Modern colloquial English has started again with going to, which uses motion instead of desire. Greek used a separate set of endings. A language's future is always made out of something else, and English chose wanting.
Meaning
will and helmet, shortened
A short form of Wilhelmina, itself the feminine of a Germanic compound joining the word for will or desire to the word for a helmet. The doubled l is an English spelling habit and appears in no German form.
How the name formed
- Wilhelmina
- Wilma
- Willma
Related forms: Wilma · Wilma · Vilma
Pronouncing Willma
WIL-muh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled l changes nothing, since the first vowel was already short.
Nicknames for Willma
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
- 191827 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1438reached in 1902
- Change vs 1962
- −14.3%6 in 1965, from 7
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.
Willma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wilma in German — same name
- Wilma in Dutch — same name
- Vilma in Italian — related form
Willmas among us
people named Willma 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
Willma 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
- Two syllables with front stress is the plainest shape English has.
- The longer name stands behind it for occasions that want one.
- The sound is entirely familiar and needs no teaching.
- Wilma is the standard spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- The doubled letter is silent, so the spelling must be given aloud every time.
- A cartoon fixed the name in a lot of heads for a long time.
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Willma
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Willmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Willma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Willma in 2025?
- Willma is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Willma with classmates?
- Willma 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 Willma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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