Wilard vs William
American parents have registered 4,215,725 Williams since 1880, against 13 Wilards. William is still ahead, with 10,552 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Wilard William
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
William has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1969, when Wilard had 6 and William had 37,806.
Side by side
| Wilard | William | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 13 | 4,215,725 |
| Most in one year | 7 | 67,156 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 10,552 |
| Estimated living today | 5 | 2.2 million |
| Median age today | 56 | 55 |
| Peak year | 1925 | 1947 |
| Best rank | 3,408th boys | 4th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 9th |
| First recorded | 1925 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 13 | 16,029 / 4,199,696 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Wilard and William.