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Wilburt vs Willard

American parents have registered 78,542 Willards since 1880, against 1,108 Wilburts. Willard is still ahead, with 47 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wilburt against Willard, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wilburt Willard

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

Willard 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 1986, when Wilburt had 8 and Willard had 111.

Side by side

  Wilburt Willard
Total US births 1,10878,542
Most in one year 392,924
Babies in 2025 under 547
Estimated living today 33020,000
Median age today 6969
Peak year 19201915
Best rank 1,139th boys58th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,718th
First recorded 19031880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,108884 / 77,658

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: Wilburt and Willard.