William means “resolute protection” and is of English origin. It’s derived from Wilhelm, a Germanic title composed from wil and helm.
In the United States, William has been used as a baby name since the 19th century. The oldest record available of the name William is December 1804 according to Social Security Administration data.
Between 19th century and early 20th century, its usage was quite low. It gained massive popularity in 1912 when a total of 19626 newborn boys were named William.
The year most newborns were named William as a surname was in 1947 with 66989 occurrences. It has featured 109 times in the top 10 and 141 times in the top 100 popular boys name,
In 2019, William was ranked as 4th most popular baby name in the United states with 13542 occurrences. That’s a decrease from 2018 when it ranked 3rd with 14967 occurrences.
Between 1880 and 2019, 4, 166, 204 newborns have been named William in the united states according to Social Security Administration.
Overall, William is a commonly used name in the U.S. but it’s popularity is clearly on a downward trend. It will probably continue to fall from favor as the number of newborns given this name is constantly dropping.