Willi
Willi was last recorded in 2008, when 6 babies were given it; 144 Americans have been recorded with it between 1919 and 2008 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Willi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Willi mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Willi is “a male given name, variant of Willy”
/ˈvɪli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Willi?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #12,474, in 2008; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
10 babies in 1958, the peak
Willi peaked in 1958, when 10 boys were given it, #2,811 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 6 | #12,474 | 2.9 |
| 2007 | 5 | #14,298 | 2.4 |
| 2002 | 5 | #12,419 | 2.6 |
| 1996 | 5 | #10,474 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 5 | #10,108 | 2.5 |
| 1992 | 7 | #7,381 | 3.5 |
| 1987 | 5 | #8,106 | 2.7 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,783 | 2.7 |
| 1978 | 7 | #5,042 | 4.3 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,732 | 3.1 |
Every recorded year (23)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 7 | #4,219 | 3.8 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,736 | 2.9 |
| 1964 | 9 | #3,043 | 4.5 |
| 1962 | 7 | #3,632 | 3.4 |
| 1961 | 8 | #3,348 | 3.8 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,583 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 10 | #2,816 | 4.7 |
| 1958 | 10 | #2,811 | 4.7 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,444 | 2.4 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,496 | 3.4 |
| 1948 | 5 | #4,187 | 2.8 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,007 | 4.7 |
| 1919 | 6 | #4,154 | 6.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Willi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Willi has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 23 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Willi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Willi, and how old are they?
An estimated 112 Americans named Willi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (78% of everyone recorded); the median is 56 years old and half are between 34 and 66. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,019 people named Willi (150 women and girls, 869 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 119 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Willi rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 620,246 babies since 1880, Willi is the seventh most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 371 babies recorded by SSA was a Willi (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 Willi
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1910-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Mickel | 2,009 |
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 Willi and names like it
- Compare Willi and WillieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sWilli peaked in 1958.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Willi: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1958The year the most babies were named Willi.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Willi alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with WMost given first.