Williams
A masculine given name derived from an English surname meaning "son of William".
Name Census estimates that about 3,802 living Americans carry the first name Williams. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Williams today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Williams births was 1950 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Williams. 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 Williams with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 90,151 Americans
Peak year
1950
86 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,542
Tracked since 1880
Census
Williams in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,117 people with the first name Williams, which placed it at #2,848 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
#2,848
National first-name rank
People counted
8.1K
8,117 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Williams
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Williams is White at 42.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.8%) and Black (23.6%). 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 Williams 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 Williams at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.8% · 3,473
- Hispanic or Latino29.8% · 2,420
- Black or African American23.6% · 1,919
- Two or more races1.8% · 145
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 34
Gender
Gender distribution for Williams
Out of the 6,110 babies given the name Williams since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Williams as a male name
- Ranked #2,542 in 2024
- 53 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1950 (86 births)
Williams as a female name
- Ranked #12,156 in 1981
- 5 female births in 1981
- Peak: 1958 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Williams leans strongly male. 7,630 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 493 female bearers (6.1%).
Popularity
Williams: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Williams from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 613 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Williams remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Williams 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 Williams during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Williams' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Mississippi, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Williams, while Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 151 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Williams
The name Williams is an English given name derived from the Germanic name Wilhelm. Wilhelm is composed of the elements "wil" meaning desire or will, and "helm" meaning helmet or protection. The name Williams literally means "desire for protection" or "resolute protector."
The name Wilhelm was introduced to England by the Norman conquerors in the 11th century. It quickly became a popular name among the nobility and gradually spread to the common people. Over time, the name evolved into various spellings such as William, Wiliam, and Williams.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England. He was born in 1028 and is known for leading the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Another notable figure was William Shakespeare, the famous English playwright and poet, who lived from 1564 to 1616.
In the 13th century, Williams appeared in the writings of the Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, suggesting its usage in Wales during that period. The name also has biblical references, with William being the English form of the Hebrew name Wilhelmus, which is mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
Other famous Williams throughout history include William Wallace, the Scottish knight and leader of the Wars of Scottish Independence, who lived from around 1270 to 1305. William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet, was born in 1770 and is renowned for his works such as "Tintern Abbey" and "Daffodils."
Williams also has a strong connection to the monarchy of England and Great Britain. Notable monarchs with this name include William the Conqueror, William III of England (also known as William of Orange, who reigned from 1689 to 1702), and William IV, who ruled from 1830 to 1837.
People
Williams + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Williams 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
Williams: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Williams?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,802 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Williams 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 90,151 US residents.
Is Williams a common name?
We classify Williams as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,110 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Williams most popular?
The single biggest year for Williams was 1950, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Williams is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Williams in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,117 people with the name Williams, or 2.69 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,848 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 Williams 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 Williams?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Williams leans strongly male. 7,630 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 493 female bearers (6.1%). 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 Williams?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Williams is White at 42.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.8%) and Black (23.6%). 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 Williams most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Williams in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.8% (3,473 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 Williams in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Williams a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Williams 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 Williams still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Williams 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 Williams 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 share the name Williams?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.