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Willard vs Wilmar

American parents have registered 78,542 Willards since 1880, against 613 Wilmars. Willard is still ahead, with 47 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Willard Wilmar

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 2013, when Willard had 31 and Wilmar had 10.

Side by side

  Willard Wilmar
Total US births 78,542613
Most in one year 2,92423
Babies in 2025 477
Estimated living today 20,000260
Median age today 6920
Peak year 19151919
Best rank 58th boys1,576th boys
Rank in 2025 2,718th9,714th
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 884 / 77,65816 / 597

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.

Which name is older

Half of the Willards alive today are over 69; half the Wilmars are over 20. That is 49 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Willard and Wilmar.