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 0.044392549 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 0.029207975 42 8705 -99%
1889 7818 0.027056959 46 7772 -99%
1890 7528 0.024976693 34 7494 -99%
1891 6813 0.02376592 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 0.019506836 41 7400 -99%
1899 6109 0.018008271 23 6086 -99%
1900 8623 0.019151114 44 8579 -99%
1901 6022 0.017414086 32 5990 -99%
1902 6641 0.017172098 25 6616 -99%
1903 6346 0.016647343 35 6311 -99%
1904 6441 0.015963418 25 6416 -99%
1905 6523 0.015387156 28 6495 -99%
1906 6594 0.015390324 28 6566 -99%
1907 6933 0.014897119 29 6904 -99%
1908 7574 0.015499783 45 7529 -99%
1909 7948 0.015547001 35 7913 -99%
1910 8881 0.015034399 37 8844 -99%
1911 10643 0.016519241 50 10593 -99%
1912 19704 0.019942109 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 0.020964446 136 40418 -99%
1917 42587 0.021221824 165 42422 -99%
1918 45463 0.02093998 172 45291 -99%
1919 44145 0.020919312 175 43970 -99%
1920 50350 0.022252668 204 50146 -99%
1921 52052 0.022296814 189 51863 -99%
1922 51306 0.022412667 194 51112 -99%
1923 52361 0.022740994 225 52136 -99%
1924 53752 0.022569502 245 53507 -99%
1925 53597 0.022970265 289 53308 -99%
1926 52223 0.022746239 303 51920 -99%
1927 51801 0.022334227 321 51480 -99%
1928 49464 0.021878004 348 49116 -99%
1929 48152 0.021965459 337 47815 -99%
1930 47559 0.021391368 289 47270 -99%
1931 43515 0.020678613 238 43277 -99%
1932 42362 0.020064767 235 42127 -99%
1933 39241 0.01962631 195 39046 -99%
1934 40352 0.019430211 175 40177 -99%
1935 40361 0.019313157 163 40198 -99%
1936 39549 0.019036595 154 39395 -99%
1937 40886 0.019189684 164 40722 -99%
1938 42566 0.019238323 138 42428 -99%
1939 42232 0.019166699 152 42080 -99%
1940 44925 0.019510562 152 44773 -99%
1941 47933 0.019674184 140 47793 -99%
1942 55059 0.020155389 170 54889 -99%
1943 56070 0.019865325 168 55902 -99%
1944 52508 0.019519651 136 52372 -99%
1945 50363 0.018984495 142 50221 -99%
1946 60190 0.018837348 157 60033 -99%
1947 67147 0.01864044 154 66993 -100%
1948 62130 0.01799576 157 61973 -99%
1949 61628 0.017685244 131 61497 -100%
1950 60809 0.017357118 125 60684 -100%
1951 62892 0.01707275 108 62784 -100%
1952 63182 0.01663545 145 63037 -100%
1953 61966 0.016079992 131 61835 -100%
1954 61558 0.015464076 127 61431 -100%
1955 60099 0.014968364 116 59983 -100%
1956 59145 0.014344841 154 58991 -99%
1957 57022 0.01356861 168 56854 -99%
1958 54384 0.013159222 160 54224 -99%
1959 51527 0.012396066 156 51371 -99%
1960 49517 0.011919483 164 49353 -99%
1961 48213 0.011643048 204 48009 -99%
1962 45027 0.011158975 175 44852 -99%
1963 44635 0.01127548 181 44454 -99%
1964 44382 0.011416083 157 44225 -99%
1965 40271 0.011107326 157 40114 -99%
1966 38420 0.011054108 180 38240 -99%
1967 37807 0.011136049 186 37621 -99%
1968 37125 0.010988419 190 36935 -99%
1969 37817 0.010880567 199 37618 -99%
1970 39099 0.01084027 205 38894 -99%
1971 35616 0.010376165 201 35415 -99%
1972 30707 0.009768973 193 30514 -99%
1973 28182 0.009340692 163 28019 -99%
1974 27153 0.008931302 169 26984 -99%
1975 25730 0.008520629 163 25567 -99%
1976 24639 0.008119266 200 24439 -98%
1977 24949 0.00785374 187 24762 -99%
1978 24366 0.007676287 186 24180 -98%
1979 24873 0.007475401 191 24682 -98%
1980 25864 0.007508043 216 25648 -98%
1981 24977 0.007219646 171 24806 -99%
1982 25781 0.007348825 178 25603 -99%
1983 25585 0.007387164 187 25398 -99%
1984 25063 0.007183977 158 24905 -99%
1985 24796 0.006947577 183 24613 -99%
1986 24496 0.006886797 165 24331 -99%
1987 24370 0.006759232 169 24201 -99%
1988 24290 0.006574177 163 24127 -99%
1989 24767 0.00644252 94 24673 -99%
1990 24966 0.006317138 61 24905 -100%
1991 23917 0.006140456 56 23861 -100%
1992 23128 0.006021405 60 23068 -99%
1993 22258 0.005904005 42 22216 -100%
1994 21535 0.005793096 45 21490 -100%
1995 20205 0.005517647 46 20159 -100%
1996 20584 0.005644218 41 20543 -100%
1997 20045 0.00552885 26 20019 -100%
1998 20869 0.005674037 36 20833 -100%
1999 20742 0.005615633 26 20716 -100%
2000 20705 0.005478067 38 20667 -100%
2001 20133 0.005378705 24 20109 -100%
2002 20167 0.005395428 34 20133 -100%
2003 20028 0.005268086 32 19996 -100%
2004 20344 0.005325154 111 20233 -99%
2005 19084 0.004964405 28 19056 -100%
2006 18979 0.004798351 18 18961 -100%
2007 18916 0.004732966 26 18890 -100%
2008 18426 0.004689232 28 18398 -100%
2009 17940 0.004697782 15 17925 -100%
2010 17087 0.004625073 23 17064 -100%
2011 17382 0.004753975 28 17354 -100%
2012 16923 0.004629193 19 16904 -100%
2013 16668 0.004574531 14 16654 -100%
2014 16862 0.004552147 23 16839 -100%
2015 15950 0.00431269 15 15935 -100%
2016 15818 0.004314949 20 15798 -100%
2017 15041 0.004209913 18 15023 -100%
2018 14645 0.004170286 12 14633 -100%
2019 13641 0.003935864 12 13629 -100%
2020 12657 0.003796362 14 12643 -100%
2021 12165 0.003599418 21 12144 -100%
2022 11289 0.003357927 7 11282 -100%