Willo
Feminine · “Old English welig”
Aspirin came out of a willow tree. The bark had been chewed for pain since antiquity, chemists isolated salicin from it in the 1820s, and the drug's name still carries the tree's Latin one: salix.
How old is the name Willo?
Willo first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Willo alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 300 people named Willo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Willo most popular?
Willo peaked in 1932, reaching #1597 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,510 places below that high. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From welig to Willo
The story of Willo
Hippocrates recommended willow bark for pain and fever, and so did the Ebers papyrus, and so did country practice across Europe for the next two thousand years. In 1828 a Munich pharmacist isolated the active compound and named it salicin after Salix, the willow genus; chemists refined it to salicylic acid, which worked and destroyed the stomach, and in 1897 a Bayer chemist produced the acetylated version that became aspirin. The tree also supplied cricket bats, baskets, charcoal for gunpowder and the pattern on several million plates. Its name in English is old and unremarkable, from Old English welig, and it became a girl's name in America only in the twentieth century, alongside a small set of other tree names.
Meaningscholars disagree
Old English welig, the willow tree
Willo is most plausibly a short form of Willow or a feminine of William, from Germanic wil, will, and helm, protection. The tree name comes from Old English welig. The peak of this spelling is 1932.
How the name formed
- welig
- Willow
- Willo
Related forms: Willow · Willa
Pronouncing Willo
WIL-oh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Willo and Willow are homophones; the shorter spelling is the older of the two in the records.
Nicknames for Willo
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
- 1911
- Most girls named
- 192423 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1597reached in 1932
- Change vs 2023
- +12.5%9 in 2025, from 8
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.
Willo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Willow in English — spelling variant
- Willa in English — related form
Willos among us
people named Willo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Willo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Naomie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Willo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Naomie climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Naomie's path sketches the road Willo is walking now.
Willo 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
Willo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Willo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters and two syllables, spelled as heard.
- Willow and Willa are both available as fuller forms.
- The tree behind it is familiar and concrete.
- Willow is the standard modern spelling.
- It reads as a clipped form rather than a full name.
- The 1932 peak dates it to the interwar years.
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What they receive
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Willo
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Willos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Willo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Willo in 2025?
- Willo ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Willo?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Willo — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Willo with classmates?
- Willo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Willo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Willo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Willo and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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