Willamae
A feminine name derived from the English names William and Mae.
Name Census estimates that about 81 living Americans carry the first name Willamae. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Willamae today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willamae births was 1923 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willamae. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Willamae. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
81
~ 1 in 4,231,535 Americans
Peak year
1923
28 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,344
Tracked since 1912
Census
Willamae in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 267 people with the first name Willamae, which placed it at #31,863 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#31,863
National first-name rank
People counted
267
267 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Willamae
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willamae is Black at 52.1%. The next largest groups are White (39.7%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Willamae described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Willamae at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.1% · 139
- White39.7% · 106
- Two or more races5.2% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
Popularity
Willamae: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willamae from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 131 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Willamae by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Willamae during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Willamae
The name Willamae is a relatively modern English name that emerged in the late 19th century. It is a combination of the common English names William and Mae, with William being derived from the Germanic name Willahelm, meaning "will" or "desire" and "helmet" or "protection". Mae is a shortened form of the name Mary, which originated from the Hebrew name Miriam.
Willamae does not have any direct historical or literary references prior to its emergence as a given name in the late 1800s. It is believed to have been created as a unique name by combining existing names, a practice that became popular during the Victorian era.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Willamae was Willamae Burt, an American actress born in 1892. She had a brief career in silent films during the 1910s and 1920s.
Willamae Fies, born in 1905, was an American baseball player who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1940s. She played for the Peoria Redwings and the Racine Belles.
Willamae Woods, born in 1924, was an American singer and actress who performed on Broadway and in various musical productions throughout the mid-20th century. She was known for her roles in the musicals "House of Flowers" and "Kwamina".
Willamae Buckheit, born in 1931, was a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1989, representing the constituency of Calgary Buffalo.
Willamae Moore, born in 1935, is an American writer and educator who has published several books on African-American history and culture, including "Celebrating Life: African American Women Speak Out" and "Inside Black America".
While the name Willamae was relatively uncommon throughout most of the 20th century, it experienced a brief surge in popularity in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s, likely influenced by the fame of individuals like Willamae Burt and Willamae Fies.
People
Willamae + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willamae as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Willamae: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willamae?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 81 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willamae going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,231,535 US residents.
Is Willamae a common name?
We classify Willamae as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 406 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willamae most popular?
The single biggest year for Willamae was 1923, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willamae is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Willamae in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 267 people with the name Willamae, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,863 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Willamae in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Willamae?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willamae leans strongly female. 259 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 3 male bearers (1.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Willamae?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willamae is Black at 52.1%. The next largest groups are White (39.7%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Willamae most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Willamae in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.1% (139 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Willamae in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Willamae a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Willamae in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Willamae still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Willamae in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Willamae can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Willamae?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.