William Name Meaning, Origin, Popularity, Boy Names Like William

William Name Origin: German
Pronunciation: will-yuhm
See what 48 people think about William

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William Name Meaning

A stalwart for many centuries, William is among the most classic names for boys around the world. Meaning “helmet” or “protection,” William is a strong name with a distinct air of masculinity. It’s a solid boys’ name rich in history.

Though an old Germanic moniker, William first rose to popularity in the English language in the 11th century. Since, William has been adopted by many important individuals, including prominent figures like William Shakespeare, Will Smith, royals akin to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, as well as four former presidents of the United States.

With many derivatives, those named William may answer to a wide range of nicknames. Today, however, the formal William is much more popular than shortened versions like Will, Willy, Bill, or Billy. In the United Kingdom and British territories, Wills is the preferred nickname for William.

Though the short forms my fall in and out favor, William is one boys’ name that’s here to stay. It’s an excellent choice for parents who show preference toward classic boys’ names, as it has maintained consistent popularity in the United States throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

Female forms of the name William include Willa, Wilhelmina, Willamette, Wilma, and Billie.

William Name Popularity

How popular is the name William? Here’s everything we know.

Year	Rank	# Births	% Births
1910	3	8,844	2.5119%
1911	2	10,593	2.8447%
1912	2	19,626	3.8918%
1913	2	23,538	4.1515%
1914	2	29,753	4.2693%
1915	2	38,564	4.2446%
1916	2	40,419	4.1842%
1917	2	42,423	4.2405%
1918	2	45,290	4.2199%
1919	2	43,972	4.1993%
1920	2	50,147	4.5101%
1921	3	51,862	4.5292%
1922	3	51,117	4.5883%
1923	3	52,135	4.6547%
1924	3	53,515	4.6084%
1925	3	53,303	4.7159%
1926	4	51,919	4.7204%
1927	4	51,482	4.6509%
1928	4	49,111	4.5899%
1929	4	47,809	4.6157%
1930	4	47,259	4.5242%
1931	4	43,269	4.384%
1932	4	42,114	4.2627%
1933	4	39,045	4.1909%
1934	4	40,168	4.1551%
1935	4	40,195	4.1362%
1936	4	39,387	4.0888%
1937	4	40,709	4.1313%
1938	4	42,422	4.1439%
1939	4	42,078	4.1366%
1940	4	44,770	4.2121%
1941	4	47,786	4.2458%
1942	4	54,879	4.3459%
1943	4	55,899	4.2819%
1944	4	52,364	4.2251%
1945	4	50,211	4.1171%
1946	4	60,039	4.0689%
1947	4	66,986	4.0129%
1948	4	61,964	3.8816%
1949	4	61,501	3.8232%
1950	6	60,690	3.7693%
1951	6	62,780	3.7028%
1952	6	63,059	3.6125%
1953	6	61,799	3.4918%
1954	6	61,420	3.3599%
1955	6	59,955	3.2595%
1956	6	58,934	3.1203%
1957	6	56,829	2.9533%
1958	6	54,195	2.8675%
1959	7	51,364	2.7034%
1960	7	49,354	2.6048%
1961	7	48,003	2.5426%
1962	7	44,858	2.4434%
1963	7	44,478	2.4778%
1964	7	44,242	2.5134%
1965	6	40,132	2.4541%
1966	6	38,260	2.4505%
1967	6	37,621	2.4791%
1968	6	36,958	2.4613%
1969	6	37,633	2.4428%
1970	7	38,910	2.445%
1971	7	35,432	2.3579%
1972	9	30,532	2.2417%
1973	9	28,021	2.1614%
1974	10	26,993	2.0768%
1975	10	25,571	1.9899%
1976	11	24,447	1.8968%
1977	12	24,770	1.8376%
1978	13	24,187	1.799%
1979	13	24,701	1.7518%
1980	14	25,652	1.7544%
1981	15	24,804	1.6874%
1982	15	25,599	1.7131%
1983	16	25,391	1.7206%
1984	16	24,901	1.6739%
1985	16	24,604	1.621%
1986	15	24,328	1.6117%
1987	15	24,199	1.5858%
1988	16	24,122	1.5479%
1989	15	24,670	1.5288%
1990	16	24,892	1.5018%
1991	19	23,865	1.4641%
1992	20	23,066	1.4451%
1993	18	22,208	1.4245%
1994	19	21,488	1.4002%
1995	20	20,158	1.3375%
1996	18	20,540	1.3718%
1997	19	20,017	1.3534%
1998	14	20,831	1.3918%
1999	14	20,708	1.3828%
2000	11	20,659	1.3524%
2001	10	20,099	1.3339%
2002	11	20,122	1.3428%
2003	11	19,989	1.3139%
2004	8	20,223	1.3268%
2005	11	19,050	1.246%
2006	10	18,955	1.2105%
2007	8	18,881	1.1967%
2008	8	18,388	1.1897%
2009	5	17,914	1.1985%
2010	5	17,048	1.183%
2011	3	17,339	1.217%
2012	5	16,880	1.1846%
2013	5	16,633	1.1682%
2014	5	16,809	1.1537%
2015	5	15,889	1.092%
2016	3	15,739	1.0916%
2017	3	14,904	1.0678%
2018	3	14,516	1.0566%
2019	4	13,542	1.0003%
2020	5	12,285	0.9652%
2021	6	12,088	0.9889%
2022	6	11,078	0.8397%

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Data via SSA.gov.

Names Like William

If you like William, you’ll love these other names like William.

What names are diminutives of William?

A diminutive is a name that’s like William sounds, you might also like these names that sound like William, but shorter.

Name	Meaning	Origin
Bill	A diminutive form of William.	English
Bille	Will helmet, protection	German
Billie	Will helmet, protection	German
Billy	Will helmet, protection	German
Liam	Helmet of will	Irish
Wiley	Crafty	English
Wilkie	Will helmet, protection	German
Will	Desiring peace; will helmet, protection	German
Willi	Will helmet, protection	German
Willie	Willing protector	English
Willkie	Will helmet, protection	German
Wills	Will helmet, protection	German
Willy	Will helmet, protection	German
Wim	Will helmet, protection	German

What names are variants of William?

Mix it up with these names that are a variation of the name William.

Name	Meaning	Origin	Popularity	Other Gender

Guglielmo	Will helmet, protection	German
Guillaume	Will helmet, protection	German
Guillermo	Will helmet, protection	German
Vilhelm	Will helmet, protection	German
Villem	Will helmet, protection	German
Wilek	Will helmet, protection	German
Wilhelm	Will helmet, protection	German
Wilhelmus	Will helmet, protection	German
Wilkes	“The melancholy one,” from the Anglo-Saxon wolcen, a cloud.	English
Wilkinson	Son of little Will	English
Willem	Will helmet, protection	German
Willhelmus	Will helmet, protection	German
Williams	Will helmet, protection	German
Williamson	Will helmet, protection	German
Willis	“The son of Will(iam ),” based on Will (diminutive of William) and is (his).	English

Willson	Will helmet, protection; son of William	German
Wilmer	Strong desire	German
Wilmot	Will helmet, protection	German
Wilmott	Will helmet, protection	German
Wilson	Son of William	English

What names sound like William?

If you like how William sounds, you might also like these names that sound like William.

Name	Meaning	Origin
Wickam	From the village meadow	English
Wilber	Bright will	German
Wilberforce
Wilbert	Bright will	German
Wilberto	Bright will	German
Wilbur	Bright will	German
Wilder	Hunter	German
Wilford	Willow-ford	English
Willard	Strong desire	English

What names are similar to William?

Find a name that’s like William, but just a little bit different.

Name	Meaning	Origin	Popularity	Other Gender
Benjamin	A favorite son	Hebrew

Christopher	Bearing Christ	English
George	Farmer	Greek
James	Supplanter	English
John	God is gracious	Hebrew
Joseph	Jehovah will increase	Hebrew
Matthew	Gift of God	Hebrew
Michael	Who is Like God?	Hebrew
Oliver	Olive tree	English
Robert	Bright fame	German

Lists With William

Find inspiration in these baby boy name lists featuring the name William.

Siblings of William

Mamas with kids named William also have kids with these names.

Name	Meaning	Origin
Lane	Small pathway or road	English
Noah	To rest	Hebrew
Aliya	Rising, ascending	Hebrew
Kylie	Boomerang	Aboriginal
Ryann	King	Irish
Ezra	Help	Hebrew

Isabella	Devoted to God	Italian
Brielle	God is my strength	French
Hallie	A variant spelling of Hally.	Scandinavian
Charlie	Free man	English
Josef	Jehovah increases	Hebrew
Taylor	Tailor; to cut	French
Reece	Enthusiasm	Welsh
Grace	Gracious one	English
Faith	Devotion	English
Elizabeth	God is my oath	Hebrew
Marie	A French form of Mary.	French
Joy	Happiness	Latin
Jordyn	To descend	Hebrew
Jubilee	Ram's horn	Hebrew
David	Beloved	Hebrew

Robert	Bright fame	German
Hudson	Son of Hudd	English
Madlyn	Woman from Magdala	Hebrew
Wendy	Friend	English
Autumn	Season of harvest	English
Dennis	Follower of Dionysius	Greek
Madisyn	Son of the mighty warrior	English
Steven	Crown	English

Share Your Thoughts

48 Comments

William Jan 31 at 4:22 pm

As a person named William, I can confirm that I go by William.

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Abigail Oct 18 at 10:06 am

William was the full name of my dad’s sponsor during his recovery when in college and then in early married life. My dad often credited him for being one of the best influences he had, and without his help the quality of his family/married life would have been much different. He was also the godfather of my first younger brother. My dad knew him as Bill, and he passed away a number of years ago due to lung cancer, a direct result from his time serving in the Vietnam war. My husband and I call our baby boy Will, William, and Willy interchangeably. We decided that it would be sweet to also have him share a middle name with my dad (Edward), so that my dad and his sponsor would always be linked together, speaking to their close relationship. It was such a memorable moment when my husband and I told my parents his name. I’ve never seen my dad so proud!

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Dalia Oct 15 at 5:32 am

My SO said he never got made fun of and felt it was a respectable name. I also added Andres as a middle name because William is too traditional to me.

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Nat Sep 16 at 8:24 am

William is a family name ?

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Angelica Jul 12 at 8:21 am

Was named after family members

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Rebekah Apr 9 at 8:15 am

I liked the nickname Liam and William is a big strong name.

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Rebecca Mar 17 at 7:13 am

Really liked the name

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Rebecca Feb 24 at 7:53 am

Really like the name and it means resolute protector .

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Samantha Feb 4 at 7:54 pm

I chose the name William Because it’s my dad, my grandpa, the baby’s dad, and the baby’s other grandpa’s first name. He is a junior in many different ways but doesn’t have the Jr abbreviation.

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kristyn Nov 16 at 3:57 am

William so sweet, so brave. how amazed it was when you came into this world! I Love You my sweet little baby boy always and forever mammas going to be here and make everything alright <3

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Felicity Nov 15 at 10:26 am

We thought it was a strong name and also a family name.

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Naiane Nov 11 at 10:07 am

William is after my husband’s father and grandfather’s name. It’s also easy to pronounce both here and in Brazil. As I am from Brazil and wanted names that no one would have trouble pronouncing it.

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Lauren Aug 17 at 10:14 am

William was an important mentor in my husbands life. We wanted to carry on his name. We also love the name because it’s strong and meaningful to us.

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Kristyn May 28 at 9:51 am

My grandfather name

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Kristyn Apr 15 at 9:14 am

Good

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Harper Sep 12 at 7:40 pm

I love William as a name, most people call their William’s, Billy, Will, Liam, Willy, I just like William. William’s middle name is George, after my father. We have another boy, Callum, and I like how they both end in M and that Um sound.

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Bella Smithson Aug 3 at 9:00 am

It’s a family tradition to name your son William on my husband’s side. My husband’s father is Bill, My husband is Will, and we call our little William Liam. We didn’t want him to be a III ( or whatever he would be at this point.) So instead of the middle name Albert, like my husband the souls before him, we chose Arthur, a similar name, but my father’s middle name. He still has the same initials as the men before him. William Arthur Smithson. It has some cute nicknames, Liam, Billy, Willy, we also call him Waso sometimes, (his initials spell WAS.)

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Megan May 2 at 11:25 am

Baby’s father is junior. Baby is 3rd

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Rachel Mar 13 at 12:20 pm

We chose our son’s name from my husband’s best friend growing up.

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Mama Mar 9 at 12:27 pm

Picking a name was so hard this time around. We prayed and prayed constantly for him and for God to give us his name. Every name we would like, then really not like for one reason or another. My husband had liked the name William since I was pregnant with our first but I never thought anything of it. Well, for starters I should not have gotten pregnant when I did. It was a very weird month, tons of negative tests, then randomly I took a final test and was 1000% CERTAIN it’d be negative. I even said to myself out loud, “Even if it’s positive, I won’t believe it.” It was just such a weird month, weird timing, hadn’t had a period in 6+ weeks but every test was negative. Well…it was positive. I was in complete shock. When I snapped out of it obviously I was ecstatic. I was also asking God why/how did this happen?! Why all the negative tests? Just so weird and unexplainable.

We started searching hard for a special name that meant “has a purpose” or “meant to be here”. When I told my midwife about how strange this whole thing was she even said, “He was meant to be here!” ?

So then one night a couple months ago while showering (I’ve always heard the best thinking happens in there) I was shampooing my hair and stopped and said OMG……WILL! The name William, “Will” Literally. Will. God WILLED him to be here. It was God’s WILL that this specific little person should join our family. Told my husband and just could never let go of it. I told him I was waiting for him to be as certain as I was. Then on my husband’s birthday he looked at me and told me, “His name is Will.” ?

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Tara Jan 27 at 12:26 pm

Family name, after my husband and his father and grandfather.
All have different middle names, so my son is not a “jr”

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Steph Jan 24 at 7:38 pm

We chose this name because we both loved that it was a strong boys name but he could also have many short fun nicknames; Will, Bill, Billy and Willy.

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Jasmine Jan 5 at 1:03 pm

I like it as it’s my grandas names and he gets the nickname of Billy as king William is called king Billy in northern Ireland

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Jess Jan 5 at 5:17 am

It is a family name.
Like the old/formal sound of the name and we nicknamed him Wim, which we love!

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Stephanie Nov 18 at 5:38 pm

I choose William after my grandpa and uncle who have now passed away, I choose Michael after my baby cousin who passed away many years ago. William is a very rare name you don’t hear that name very often and I’m keeping it in my family! I hope to think my grandpa and uncle would be proud to have me use there name for my baby boy.

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Erin Sep 4 at 12:07 pm

He is named after his grandpa. We liked that it’s a strong traditional name.

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Amber Jul 31 at 10:12 pm

William is a wonderful name that his father picked out hes a handsome growing 9 month old I love him to the moon and back he is my first little bundle of joy hes so smart and already crawling and I’m sure he will be walking soon .. because he is already standing him self up on things I love my little william and there in nothing or no one in this world that can change the way I feel about him ?

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Hannah May 16 at 9:59 pm

William is a name I just liked. It is also a family name on mine plus my husbands side. It also has a good strong meaning, protector.

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Khandra Apr 5 at 7:37 pm

I picked the name William because I loved the meaning behind it (willful warrior). It also happens to be my stepfathers name.
I don’t dislaike it at all, if I did I wouldn’t have picked it.

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Elizabeth Feb 14 at 10:37 am

I pick William because I love the name. William is 5 months old and he loves to talk a lot.

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William Dec 30 at 4:51 am

Named after my Dad- his middle name

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Heather Grider Oct 7 at 12:53 pm

The reason why I picked William is because of my dead grandpa

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Kyla Sep 21 at 12:42 am

I chose the name William because it was my grandfather’s name which he was the first person to touch me as baby and now he has passe away. I feel that the name William is a great way to honor him. William also has the meaning resolute protector so there fore my son’s name is very strong.

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Courtney Dean Aug 17 at 12:03 pm

It’s my daddy middle name and we love the name

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Madlyn Aug 17 at 9:12 am

William is my stepson. He got his name from his father and a long line of second born men In his family. He has such an amazing spirit and is such a sweet boy. Loves his baby sister.

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Jennifer Jun 15 at 12:43 pm

Mum late father was William, my husband is William and my husbands fathers middle name was William so we wanted to use a name that meant something to us and I think William is a strong British name.

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Jessica Jun 15 at 10:25 am

Our first son, William, is 9 years old. His name was chosen from a long family line of William’s that dates back to the 17th century.

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Jaclyn Jun 13 at 2:43 pm

William was named after his great grandfather!

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Stacie Jun 12 at 9:43 am

He is named William because he is the 4th William in his family. It’s a easy name.

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Sarina Jun 8 at 4:48 pm

He’s named after his father.

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Molly Jun 8 at 10:28 am

It was a family name. I love it because it is a strong name and it belonged to someone my husband loved.
Mr. Will is a such a happy little man, I could imagine our life without him .

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Chloe Jun 7 at 1:01 pm

We chose the name because he’s the 4th generation William James McAuley IV. ask basically just family tradition. We love the name because it’s traditional and suits our little boy’s personality. We also decided against using any of the common nicknames for William.

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Amanda Apr 22 at 1:33 pm

My husband and i chose william cause its a strong name and its also my father inlaws name and it went well with his middle name allen whos after my deceased grandfather

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Melodie Apr 22 at 12:55 pm

William is our sons middle name, named after his Great-grandfather

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Nelly Apr 22 at 12:36 pm

It was my husband?s idea. He is a theologian, and when we got married almost 7 years ago, he was studying in Tyndale Theological Seminary named after William Tyndale. He then said that if we get a boy one day, he will be William. And so, 5 years later, William was born!
I love the name. We don?t call him with nicknames. It is a classic, royal name and it is just a perfect name for our son.

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Julia Apr 13 at 9:10 pm

My family values names highly. Me and my siblings are all named for family and our names have deep roots in our heritage. I wanted to carry on that naming tradition in my own family. My husband’s grandfather was named William. Sadly, I never got to meet him, but have been told amazing stories of the great man he was. My great grandmother is named Willie. She has always hated her name, but wanted someone in the family to be named William as kind of a namesake for her. Also, her husband nicknamed her Sweet William after the flower. So with those two family members in mind, we chose the name for our son.

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Kathleen Apr 13 at 2:12 pm

Nickname Will

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Kattie Apr 13 at 11:57 am

William came about because my Husband’s godfather is named William and we wanted to honor him by naming one of our boys after him. William’s middle name is also in honor of someone close to us. All of our boys are named after someone we love and respect.

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William