Willo
A feminine diminutive form of the name Willow, from the willow tree.
Name Census estimates that about 224 living Americans carry the first name Willo. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Willo today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Willo births was 1924 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Willo. 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.
People living today
224
~ 1 in 1,530,153 Americans
Peak year
1924
23 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,111
Tracked since 1911
Census
Willo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 363 people with the first name Willo, which placed it at #25,907 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
#25,907
National first-name rank
People counted
363
363 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Willo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willo is White at 63.9%. The next largest groups are Black (24.2%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Willo 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 Willo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.9% · 232
- Black or African American24.2% · 88
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 16
- Two or more races3.9% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 6
Popularity
Willo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Willo from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 166 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Willo 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 Willo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Willos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Willo
The given name Willo originated in the Germanic language family and has its roots in the Old English word "willa," which means "will" or "desire." It was commonly used as a personal name during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, which spanned from the 5th to the 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Willo can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of land ownership and taxation commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The Domesday Book mentions a landowner named Willo in the county of Gloucestershire.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Willo was widespread across various parts of Europe, particularly in regions with Germanic cultural influences. It was often a shortened or diminutive form of longer names like Wilfred or Wilhelm.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Willo of Auvergne (c. 1200-1272) was a French philosopher and theologian who taught at the University of Paris. He is known for his influential works on metaphysics and ethics.
During the Renaissance period, the name Willo gained popularity among the noble classes in parts of Europe. One example is Willo the Rich (c. 1475-1557), a wealthy merchant and landowner from the Netherlands who played a significant role in the economic development of the city of Antwerp.
In the 17th century, a German composer and organist named Willo Dietrich (1619-1677) gained recognition for his contributions to sacred music and his work as a court musician in the city of Dresden.
Another historical figure with the name Willo was Willo Hopton (1642-1717), an English military officer who fought in the Nine Years' War and served as the Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was also a Member of Parliament for several constituencies in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
While the name Willo has experienced periods of popularity and decline over the centuries, it has remained a distinctive and unique choice in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with Germanic linguistic and cultural heritage.
People
Willo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Willo 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
Willo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Willo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 224 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Willo 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 1,530,153 US residents.
Is Willo a common name?
We classify Willo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 628 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Willo most popular?
The single biggest year for Willo was 1924, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Willo is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Willo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 363 people with the name Willo, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,907 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 Willo 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 Willo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Willo leans strongly female. 310 people counted with this name were female (86.1%), compared with 50 male bearers (13.9%). 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 Willo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Willo is White at 63.9%. The next largest groups are Black (24.2%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Willo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Willo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.9% (232 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 Willo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Willo a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Willo 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 Willo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Willo 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 Willo 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 called Willo?
You can see how many people have the name Willo on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.