Name Trends

See the popularity of names over time in the USA

How popular is “William” in the USA?

Number of people named “William” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “William” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “William” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “William” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “William” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “William” by birth year

This chart shows how “William” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 9562 0.047457863 30 9532 -99%
1881 8554 0.044393007 30 8524 -99%
1882 9329 0.042111106 31 9298 -99%
1883 8427 0.038843766 40 8387 -99%
1884 8931 0.036683492 34 8897 -99%
1885 8077 0.03353484 33 8044 -99%
1886 8287 0.032457817 35 8252 -99%
1887 7514 0.030372849 44 7470 -99%
1888 8747 0.029207878 42 8705 -99%
1889 7818 0.027056959 46 7772 -99%
1890 7528 0.024976693 34 7494 -99%
1891 6813 0.023765754 50 6763 -99%
1892 7826 0.02340493 44 7782 -99%
1893 7255 0.02230777 32 7223 -99%
1894 7308 0.021577254 34 7274 -99%
1895 7317 0.020844966 40 7277 -99%
1896 7791 0.021793982 44 7747 -99%
1897 7230 0.020838317 32 7198 -99%
1898 7441 0.019506888 41 7400 -99%
1899 6109 0.018008219 23 6086 -99%
1900 8623 0.019151242 44 8579 -99%
1901 6022 0.017414086 32 5990 -99%
1902 6642 0.017174641 25 6617 -99%
1903 6346 0.016647428 35 6311 -99%
1904 6441 0.015963418 25 6416 -99%
1905 6523 0.015387265 28 6495 -99%
1906 6594 0.015390324 28 6566 -99%
1907 6933 0.014897183 29 6904 -99%
1908 7574 0.015499879 45 7529 -99%
1909 7948 0.015547001 35 7913 -99%
1910 8881 0.015034425 37 8844 -99%
1911 10643 0.016519267 50 10593 -99%
1912 19704 0.019942068 78 19626 -99%
1913 23632 0.02078251 94 23538 -99%
1914 29850 0.021075388 97 29753 -99%
1915 38692 0.021115178 129 38563 -99%
1916 40554 0.020964457 136 40418 -99%
1917 42587 0.021221876 165 42422 -99%
1918 45463 0.02093997 172 45291 -99%
1919 44145 0.020919371 175 43970 -99%
1920 50350 0.022252737 204 50146 -99%
1921 52051 0.022296375 189 51862 -99%
1922 51306 0.022412628 194 51112 -99%
1923 52361 0.022741122 225 52136 -99%
1924 53751 0.022569187 245 53506 -99%
1925 53598 0.022970879 289 53309 -99%
1926 52225 0.022747021 303 51922 -99%
1927 51797 0.022332473 321 51476 -99%
1928 49467 0.021878973 348 49119 -99%
1929 48151 0.021965085 337 47814 -99%
1930 47560 0.02139174 289 47271 -99%
1931 43518 0.020679647 238 43280 -99%
1932 42362 0.020064501 235 42127 -99%
1933 39242 0.019626427 195 39047 -99%
1934 40351 0.019429261 175 40176 -99%
1935 40363 0.019313363 163 40200 -99%
1936 39552 0.019037552 154 39398 -99%
1937 40888 0.019190207 164 40724 -99%
1938 42570 0.019240035 138 42432 -99%
1939 42225 0.019163201 152 42073 -99%
1940 44933 0.019513307 152 44781 -99%
1941 47937 0.019675139 140 47797 -99%
1942 55061 0.020155443 170 54891 -99%
1943 56072 0.01986566 168 55904 -99%
1944 52509 0.0195195 136 52373 -99%
1945 50360 0.018982928 142 50218 -99%
1946 60187 0.018836062 157 60030 -99%
1947 67155 0.018642142 154 67001 -100%
1948 62127 0.017994693 157 61970 -99%
1949 61635 0.017686933 131 61504 -100%
1950 60804 0.017355919 125 60679 -100%
1951 62891 0.017072599 108 62783 -100%
1952 63184 0.016636102 145 63039 -100%
1953 61961 0.016078549 131 61830 -100%
1954 61558 0.015464083 127 61431 -100%
1955 60101 0.014968817 116 59985 -100%
1956 59144 0.014344766 154 58990 -99%
1957 57018 0.013568791 168 56850 -99%
1958 54414 0.01316286 160 54254 -99%
1959 51540 0.012395406 155 51385 -99%
1960 49509 0.011918923 165 49344 -99%
1961 48239 0.01164546 204 48035 -99%
1962 45034 0.011159814 175 44859 -99%
1963 44625 0.011274064 181 44444 -99%
1964 44379 0.011415511 156 44223 -99%
1965 40268 0.011107038 157 40111 -99%
1966 38420 0.011054032 180 38240 -99%
1967 37804 0.011135536 185 37619 -99%
1968 37120 0.010987408 192 36928 -99%
1969 37807 0.010878701 199 37608 -99%
1970 39094 0.01083983 205 38889 -99%
1971 35617 0.010376841 201 35416 -99%
1972 30705 0.009769347 193 30512 -99%
1973 28178 0.009340092 163 28015 -99%
1974 27146 0.008929608 169 26977 -99%
1975 25725 0.008519921 163 25562 -99%
1976 24633 0.008118182 200 24433 -98%
1977 24944 0.007852683 187 24757 -99%
1978 24360 0.007675173 186 24174 -98%
1979 24871 0.007475503 191 24680 -98%
1980 25854 0.007505866 216 25638 -98%
1981 24972 0.007218645 171 24801 -99%
1982 25784 0.007350137 178 25606 -99%
1983 25583 0.007386802 187 25396 -99%
1984 25060 0.007183078 158 24902 -99%
1985 24791 0.00694599 183 24608 -99%
1986 24498 0.006887114 165 24333 -99%
1987 24372 0.006759459 169 24203 -99%
1988 24288 0.00657313 163 24125 -99%
1989 24768 0.006442539 94 24674 -99%
1990 24970 0.006317556 61 24909 -100%
1991 23914 0.006139249 56 23858 -100%
1992 23126 0.0060204 60 23066 -99%
1993 22261 0.005904337 42 22219 -100%
1994 21536 0.005792902 45 21491 -100%
1995 20206 0.005517516 46 20160 -100%
1996 20585 0.005644063 41 20544 -100%
1997 20046 0.005528789 26 20020 -100%
1998 20871 0.005674232 36 20835 -100%
1999 20742 0.005615253 26 20716 -100%
2000 20707 0.005478181 38 20669 -100%
2001 20134 0.005378547 24 20110 -100%
2002 20170 0.005395513 34 20136 -100%
2003 20031 0.005268101 32 19999 -100%
2004 20346 0.005324891 111 20235 -99%
2005 19088 0.00496457 28 19060 -100%
2006 18981 0.004797799 18 18963 -100%
2007 18920 0.004732742 26 18894 -100%
2008 18431 0.004689028 28 18403 -100%
2009 17950 0.004698738 15 17935 -100%
2010 17094 0.004625326 23 17071 -100%
2011 17387 0.004753414 28 17359 -100%
2012 16933 0.004629834 19 16914 -100%
2013 16679 0.00457502 14 16665 -100%
2014 16870 0.004551616 23 16847 -100%
2015 15960 0.004312451 15 15945 -100%
2016 15828 0.004314337 20 15808 -100%
2017 15060 0.00421118 18 15042 -100%
2018 14657 0.00416878 12 14645 -100%
2019 13661 0.003935829 12 13649 -100%
2020 12687 0.003797847 14 12673 -100%
2021 12187 0.003597161 21 12166 -100%
2022 11356 0.00335665 7 11349 -100%
2023 10659 0.003219079 6 10653 -100%
2024 10605 0.003186119 9 10596 -100%