Willey
Willey was last recorded in 1989, when 5 babies were given it; 282 Americans have been recorded with it between 1914 and 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Willey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Willey?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #9,182, in 1989; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1924, the peak
Willey peaked in 1924, when 14 boys were given it, #2,345 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 5 | #9,182 | 2.5 |
| 1984 | 6 | #6,288 | 3.3 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,529 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 7 | #3,656 | 3.3 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,979 | 2.8 |
| 1955 | 5 | #4,386 | 2.4 |
| 1954 | 5 | #4,352 | 2.5 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,324 | 2.5 |
| 1950 | 7 | #3,317 | 3.9 |
| 1949 | 5 | #4,192 | 2.8 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | 5 | #3,892 | 3.7 |
| 1943 | 5 | #4,024 | 3.5 |
| 1942 | 9 | #2,707 | 6.5 |
| 1941 | 8 | #2,865 | 6.5 |
| 1939 | 7 | #3,107 | 6.3 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,021 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,006 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 10 | #2,449 | 9.6 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,246 | 6.7 |
| 1934 | 6 | #3,667 | 5.8 |
| 1933 | 8 | #2,998 | 8.1 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,085 | 7.7 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,382 | 6.7 |
| 1930 | 13 | #2,290 | 11.8 |
| 1929 | 7 | #3,548 | 6.5 |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,143 | 8.0 |
| 1926 | 7 | #3,697 | 6.3 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,747 | 9.9 |
| 1924 | 14 | #2,345 | 12.4 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,459 | 7.3 |
| 1922 | 12 | #2,626 | 11.0 |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,310 | 5.4 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,485 | 7.5 |
| 1919 | 7 | #3,729 | 7.1 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,716 | 6.9 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,209 | 8.6 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,884 | 6.7 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,382 | 8.2 |
| 1914 | 6 | #3,253 | 9.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Willey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Willey has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 39 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Willey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Willey, and how old are they?
An estimated 60 Americans named Willey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 221 people named Willey (31 women and girls, 190 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 83 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.7 times 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.
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).
How common is the spelling Willey?
Willey is a less common spelling of Willie: SSA has recorded 282 Willey and 596,385 Willie since 1880.
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 620,223 babies since 1880, Willey is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 377 babies recorded by SSA was a Willey (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Willey
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 Willey and names like it
- Compare Willey and WillieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sWilley peaked in 1924.
- The top names of 1924The year the most babies were named Willey.
- Names starting with WMost given first.