Willard
Willard is a masculine given name of Old English origin meaning "resolute protector."
Name Census estimates that about 23,030 living Americans carry the first name Willard. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Willard today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willard births was 1915 (2,924 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willard. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Willard with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Willard is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 884 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Willard is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Willards were born before 1968.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Willard have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 14,883 Americans
Peak year
1915
2,924 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,034
Tracked since 1880
Census
Willard in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 22,623 people with the first name Willard, which placed it at #1,487 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
#1,487
National first-name rank
People counted
23K
22,623 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Willard
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willard is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Black (10.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Willard 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 Willard at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.2% · 18,815
- Black or African American10.6% · 2,409
- Two or more races2.5% · 576
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 382
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 269
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 172
Gender
Gender distribution for Willard
Willard leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 884 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Willard as a male name
- Ranked #3,034 in 2024
- 41 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1915 (2,889 births)
Willard as a female name
- Ranked #8,684 in 1969
- 5 female births in 1969
- Peak: 1918 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willard appears almost entirely male. Of the 22,615 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Willard: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willard from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 18,692 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
Willard 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 Willard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Willards live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Willard, while Hawaii, Wyoming, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,415 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Willard
The given name Willard originates from the Germanic languages, deriving from the Old German words "wil" meaning "will" or "desire," and "hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy." It is believed to have emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 6th to 8th centuries.
The name Willard was initially prevalent in regions of modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of northern France. Variations of the spelling included Willhart, Willhardt, and Wilhart. Its use later spread to other parts of Europe and eventually to the British Isles.
One of the earliest known references to the name Willard can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name is listed as "Wilard" and is associated with landholdings in various counties.
In the 12th century, Willard de Ely was a prominent English clergyman who served as the Bishop of Ely from 1109 to 1131. He is noted for his involvement in the construction of the cathedral in Ely, Cambridgeshire.
During the Renaissance period, Willard was a relatively uncommon name, but it gained some prominence in the 16th century with Willard de Lorgues, a French nobleman and military commander who fought in the Italian Wars.
In the 17th century, Willard Sikes (1620-1672) was a notable English merchant and landowner in Massachusetts Bay Colony. He played a role in the early development of the town of Hartford, Connecticut.
Another notable figure was Willard Gibbs (1839-1903), an American scientist and mathematician who made significant contributions to the fields of thermodynamics and physical chemistry. He is considered one of the founders of modern chemical physics.
In the literary world, Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939), better known by his pen name S.S. Van Dine, was an American art critic and author who wrote several popular detective novels featuring the fictional character Philo Vance.
Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) was an influential American philosopher and logician who made important contributions to the fields of mathematical logic, set theory, and philosophy of language.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Willard, illustrating its enduring presence across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Willard
People
Willard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willard 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
Willard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,030 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willard 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 14,883 US residents.
Is Willard a common name?
We classify Willard as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 78,491 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willard most popular?
The single biggest year for Willard was 1915, when 2,924 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willard is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Willard in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 22,623 people with the name Willard, or 7.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,487 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 Willard 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 Willard?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willard appears almost entirely male. Of the 22,615 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Willard?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willard is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Black (10.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Willard most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Willard in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.2% (18,815 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 Willard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Willard a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Willard in the SSA data are male. 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 Willard still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Willard 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 Willard 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 Americans are named Willard?
Want to know how many people have the name Willard? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.