Willem
Willem was given to 51 boys in 2025, #2,601 among boys’ names; 2,840 Americans have been recorded with it since 1916 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,730 Americans named Willem and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 12 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Willem by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Willem mean?
Wiktionary, Dutch section
Willem is “a male given name from Proto-Germanic, equivalent to English William”
From Middle Dutch Willem, from Old Dutch *Willihelm, from Proto-Germanic *Wiljahelmaz.
/ˈʋɪ.ləm/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Dutch section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Willem?
#2,601 among boys’ names, 2025
Willem fell from #2,108 in 2015 to #2,601 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 35.0 to 29.9 per million.
122 babies in 2003, the peak
Willem peaked in 2003, when 122 boys were given it, #1,207 among boys’ names. The 51 births of 2025 are 42% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 51 | #2,601 | 29.9 |
| 2024 | 50 | #2,671 | 29.0 |
| 2023 | 51 | #2,607 | 29.8 |
| 2022 | 54 | #2,560 | 30.9 |
| 2021 | 75 | #1,996 | 42.9 |
| 2020 | 60 | #2,288 | 34.8 |
| 2019 | 76 | #1,950 | 42.4 |
| 2018 | 62 | #2,228 | 34.1 |
| 2017 | 56 | #2,342 | 30.3 |
| 2016 | 70 | #2,045 | 36.9 |
Every recorded year (74)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 67 | #2,108 | 35.0 |
| 2014 | 87 | #1,750 | 45.3 |
| 2013 | 86 | #1,723 | 45.5 |
| 2012 | 82 | #1,813 | 43.2 |
| 2011 | 74 | #1,901 | 39.0 |
| 2010 | 83 | #1,791 | 43.3 |
| 2009 | 71 | #1,988 | 35.8 |
| 2008 | 98 | #1,612 | 48.0 |
| 2007 | 105 | #1,515 | 50.6 |
| 2006 | 103 | #1,490 | 50.1 |
| 2005 | 107 | #1,400 | 53.6 |
| 2004 | 112 | #1,324 | 56.4 |
| 2003 | 122 | #1,207 | 61.8 |
| 2002 | 109 | #1,252 | 56.1 |
| 2001 | 79 | #1,538 | 40.7 |
| 2000 | 96 | #1,337 | 48.9 |
| 1999 | 75 | #1,513 | 39.1 |
| 1998 | 68 | #1,570 | 35.6 |
| 1997 | 53 | #1,809 | 28.1 |
| 1996 | 46 | #1,952 | 24.3 |
| 1995 | 35 | #2,289 | 18.4 |
| 1994 | 44 | #1,921 | 22.8 |
| 1993 | 40 | #2,044 | 20.4 |
| 1992 | 30 | #2,460 | 15.0 |
| 1991 | 25 | #2,744 | 12.4 |
| 1990 | 27 | #2,547 | 13.1 |
| 1989 | 32 | #2,199 | 16.0 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,432 | 5.7 |
| 1987 | 7 | #6,068 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,906 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 8 | #5,128 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 10 | #4,204 | 5.5 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,463 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 12 | #3,682 | 6.6 |
| 1981 | 10 | #4,140 | 5.6 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,925 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 10 | #4,058 | 5.8 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,740 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 7 | #5,110 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 6 | #5,570 | 3.8 |
| 1975 | 12 | #3,238 | 7.7 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,989 | 3.2 |
| 1971 | 11 | #3,138 | 6.2 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,715 | 3.2 |
| 1969 | 9 | #3,306 | 5.0 |
| 1968 | 6 | #4,123 | 3.5 |
| 1967 | 10 | #2,756 | 5.7 |
| 1966 | 6 | #3,936 | 3.4 |
| 1965 | 5 | #4,420 | 2.7 |
| 1964 | 6 | #4,033 | 3.0 |
| 1963 | 10 | #2,852 | 4.9 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,618 | 2.4 |
| 1961 | 6 | #4,052 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 8 | #3,330 | 3.8 |
| 1958 | 9 | #3,024 | 4.2 |
| 1957 | 8 | #3,252 | 3.7 |
| 1956 | 8 | #3,208 | 3.8 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,248 | 2.6 |
| 1941 | 5 | #3,989 | 4.1 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,267 | 4.8 |
| 1927 | 8 | #3,440 | 7.1 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,947 | 4.6 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,959 | 4.5 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,168 | 9.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Willem a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Willem has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 74 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Willem: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Willem, and how old are they?
2,730 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 2,840 Americans ever recorded as Willem. The median Willem alive today is 20 years old; half are between 12 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 3,279 people named Willem (6 women and girls, 3,273 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,431 born in the U.S. The Census count is 35% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 48 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 94 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 336 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,410 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 839 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Willem born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,195 | 0.8× |
| Texas | 5 | #2,926 | 0.3× |
Where Willem is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Willem is most over-represented in New York: since 1916 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Willem with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 4,227,193 babies since 1880, Willem is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 51 of their 10,647 babies (<1%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Willem
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Willem and names like it
- Compare Willem and WilliamBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sWillem peaked in 2003.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Willem since 1910.
- The top names of 2003The year the most babies were named Willem.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Willem alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with WMost given first.