William: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

William has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 4,205,026 births with this name, split between 16,022 girls and 4,189,004 boys. Because the larger side of that split is boys, this page follows the boys ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for William was 1947, when 67,001 boys received the name and it reached rank 4 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1947, William accounted for 3.66% of all recorded boys births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

William by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of William becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and William can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

In the 1880s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 2 and recording 84,881 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1890s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 2 and recording 72,244 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1900s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 2 and recording 69,320 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1910s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 2 and recording 303,018 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1920s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 2 and recording 512,402 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1930s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 4 and recording 416,728 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1940s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 4 and recording 556,469 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1950s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 6 and recording 591,226 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file.

In the 1960s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 6 and recording 421,411 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1970s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 7 and recording 283,415 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. During the 1980s, William stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 14 and 248,286 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1990s, William stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 14 and 217,818 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 2000s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 5 and recording 194,404 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 2010s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 3 and recording 159,945 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 2020s, William was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 5 and recording 57,437 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among boys, and the share of all boys births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 17,071 to 10,596, a change of -37.9 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where William stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, William recorded 20,669 births for boys, and in 2010 it recorded 17,071. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

William also appears on the girls side of the file, with 16,022 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 4,189,004 births recorded for boys, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the boys table only. Counting both sides together, William totals 4,205,026 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 5 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among boys and a rank earned among girls describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare William with the full rankings for its peak year (1947) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named William were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 10,596 boys named William, ranked 10 among boys that year.

When was William most popular?
William peaked in 1947 with 67,001 births for boys, reaching rank 4 that year in SSA records.

How many people named William appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 4,205,026 births named William from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/