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 0.038843948 40 8387 -99%
1884 8931 0.036683492 34 8897 -99%
1885 8077 0.03353484 33 8044 -99%
1886 8287 0.032457691 35 8252 -99%
1887 7514 0.030372728 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 0.023765838 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 0.020844907 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 0.0191512 44 8579 -99%
1901 6022 0.017414086 32 5990 -99%
1902 6642 0.017174641 25 6617 -99%
1903 6346 0.016647343 35 6311 -99%
1904 6441 0.015963418 25 6416 -99%
1905 6523 0.015387192 28 6495 -99%
1906 6594 0.015390324 28 6566 -99%
1907 6933 0.014897151 29 6904 -99%
1908 7574 0.015499846 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 0.019942088 78 19626 -99%
1913 23632 0.020782491 94 23538 -99%
1914 29850 0.021075359 97 29753 -99%
1915 38692 0.021115132 129 38563 -99%
1916 40554 0.020964477 136 40418 -99%
1917 42587 0.021221876 165 42422 -99%
1918 45463 0.020939961 172 45291 -99%
1919 44145 0.020919353 175 43970 -99%
1920 50350 0.022252737 204 50146 -99%
1921 52051 0.022296395 189 51862 -99%
1922 51307 0.022413073 194 51113 -99%
1923 52361 0.022741092 225 52136 -99%
1924 53751 0.022569157 245 53506 -99%
1925 53597 0.022970421 289 53308 -99%
1926 52224 0.022746665 303 51921 -99%
1927 51801 0.02233417 321 51480 -99%
1928 49465 0.021878233 348 49117 -99%
1929 48150 0.021964718 337 47813 -99%
1930 47561 0.021392191 289 47272 -99%
1931 43517 0.020679377 238 43279 -99%
1932 42362 0.020064624 235 42127 -99%
1933 39241 0.019626074 195 39046 -99%
1934 40350 0.019428911 175 40175 -99%
1935 40363 0.019313622 163 40200 -99%
1936 39550 0.019036746 154 39396 -99%
1937 40887 0.01919008 164 40723 -99%
1938 42568 0.019239148 138 42430 -99%
1939 42227 0.019164264 152 42075 -99%
1940 44929 0.019511977 152 44777 -99%
1941 47932 0.019673467 140 47792 -99%
1942 55060 0.020155519 170 54890 -99%
1943 56069 0.019864619 168 55901 -99%
1944 52507 0.019518925 136 52371 -99%
1945 50362 0.018983975 142 50220 -99%
1946 60190 0.018837184 157 60033 -99%
1947 67150 0.018641075 154 66996 -100%
1948 62126 0.017994465 157 61969 -99%
1949 61633 0.017686548 131 61502 -100%
1950 60804 0.01735587 125 60679 -100%
1951 62893 0.017073225 108 62785 -100%
1952 63181 0.016635308 145 63036 -100%
1953 61960 0.016078422 131 61829 -100%
1954 61557 0.015463925 127 61430 -100%
1955 60103 0.014969494 116 59987 -100%
1956 59146 0.014345247 154 58992 -99%
1957 57017 0.013568815 168 56849 -99%
1958 54410 0.013160794 160 54250 -99%
1959 51516 0.012393422 156 51360 -99%
1960 49520 0.011921267 164 49356 -99%
1961 48232 0.011644748 204 48028 -99%
1962 45016 0.011156877 175 44841 -99%
1963 44631 0.011275204 181 44450 -99%
1964 44381 0.011416147 156 44225 -99%
1965 40272 0.011108044 157 40115 -99%
1966 38417 0.011053436 180 38237 -99%
1967 37804 0.011135583 185 37619 -99%
1968 37118 0.010986978 192 36926 -99%
1969 37809 0.010879195 199 37610 -99%
1970 39096 0.010840421 205 38891 -99%
1971 35614 0.010376181 201 35413 -99%
1972 30706 0.009769591 193 30513 -99%
1973 28176 0.009339537 163 28013 -99%
1974 27147 0.008929934 169 26978 -99%
1975 25724 0.00851965 163 25561 -99%
1976 24632 0.00811782 200 24432 -98%
1977 24944 0.007852886 187 24757 -99%
1978 24361 0.007675609 186 24175 -98%
1979 24870 0.00747529 191 24679 -98%
1980 25856 0.007506481 216 25640 -98%
1981 24973 0.00721902 171 24802 -99%
1982 25785 0.007350466 178 25607 -99%
1983 25582 0.007386648 187 25395 -99%
1984 25058 0.007182709 158 24900 -99%
1985 24792 0.006946532 183 24609 -99%
1986 24495 0.006886526 165 24330 -99%
1987 24370 0.006759137 169 24201 -99%
1988 24288 0.006573454 163 24125 -99%
1989 24766 0.006442212 94 24672 -99%
1990 24968 0.006317419 61 24907 -100%
1991 23914 0.006139528 56 23858 -100%
1992 23125 0.006020442 60 23065 -99%
1993 22261 0.005904563 42 22219 -100%
1994 21535 0.005792901 45 21490 -100%
1995 20206 0.00551772 46 20160 -100%
1996 20585 0.005644297 41 20544 -100%
1997 20046 0.005528967 26 20020 -100%
1998 20869 0.005673872 36 20833 -100%
1999 20742 0.005615435 26 20716 -100%
2000 20706 0.005478081 38 20668 -100%
2001 20134 0.005378725 24 20110 -100%
2002 20169 0.005395474 34 20135 -100%
2003 20030 0.005268258 32 19998 -100%
2004 20345 0.005325034 111 20234 -99%
2005 19087 0.004964694 28 19059 -100%
2006 18981 0.004798277 18 18963 -100%
2007 18920 0.004733246 26 18894 -100%
2008 18428 0.004688941 28 18400 -100%
2009 17944 0.004698005 15 17929 -100%
2010 17091 0.004625257 23 17068 -100%
2011 17385 0.004753698 28 17357 -100%
2012 16927 0.004629104 19 16908 -100%
2013 16676 0.004575283 14 16662 -100%
2014 16870 0.004552795 23 16847 -100%
2015 15955 0.004312338 15 15940 -100%
2016 15822 0.004314085 20 15802 -100%
2017 15049 0.004209844 18 15031 -100%
2018 14651 0.004169145 12 14639 -100%
2019 13651 0.003935377 12 13639 -100%
2020 12676 0.00379766 14 12662 -100%
2021 12180 0.00359856 21 12159 -100%
2022 11337 0.003355521 7 11330 -100%
2023 10604 0.003216017 6 10598 -100%