Willma
Willma was last recorded in 1965, when 6 babies were given it; 673 Americans have been recorded with it between 1898 and 1965 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Willma by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Willma?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,525, in 1965; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
27 babies in 1918, the peak
Willma peaked in 1918, when 27 girls were given it, #1,565 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | 6 | #6,525 | 3.4 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,849 | 3.6 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,515 | 2.5 |
| 1959 | 5 | #7,186 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,392 | 3.5 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,879 | 2.5 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,713 | 2.6 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,272 | 4.6 |
| 1953 | 7 | #5,029 | 3.7 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,897 | 3.8 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 12 | #3,280 | 6.7 |
| 1950 | 12 | #3,230 | 7.0 |
| 1949 | 15 | #2,722 | 8.8 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,876 | 5.3 |
| 1947 | 10 | #3,696 | 5.6 |
| 1946 | 10 | #3,424 | 6.4 |
| 1945 | 7 | #4,015 | 5.4 |
| 1944 | 7 | #4,045 | 5.3 |
| 1943 | 13 | #2,690 | 9.3 |
| 1942 | 12 | #2,811 | 8.9 |
| 1941 | 9 | #3,245 | 7.4 |
| 1940 | 13 | #2,419 | 11.4 |
| 1939 | 16 | #2,123 | 14.6 |
| 1938 | 13 | #2,444 | 11.8 |
| 1937 | 20 | #1,782 | 18.8 |
| 1936 | 11 | #2,687 | 10.6 |
| 1935 | 11 | #2,724 | 10.5 |
| 1934 | 18 | #1,910 | 17.2 |
| 1933 | 24 | #1,549 | 23.8 |
| 1932 | 13 | #2,486 | 12.2 |
| 1931 | 22 | #1,682 | 20.7 |
| 1930 | 17 | #2,106 | 15.1 |
| 1929 | 9 | #3,388 | 8.1 |
| 1928 | 13 | #2,619 | 11.3 |
| 1927 | 20 | #2,023 | 16.8 |
| 1926 | 12 | #2,868 | 10.1 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,659 | 7.4 |
| 1924 | 25 | #1,769 | 20.0 |
| 1923 | 16 | #2,362 | 13.3 |
| 1922 | 17 | #2,286 | 14.2 |
| 1921 | 15 | #2,506 | 12.2 |
| 1920 | 15 | #2,460 | 12.5 |
| 1919 | 22 | #1,800 | 19.5 |
| 1918 | 27 | #1,565 | 23.3 |
| 1917 | 18 | #1,992 | 16.6 |
| 1916 | 17 | #2,026 | 16.3 |
| 1915 | 17 | #1,962 | 17.3 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,632 | 11.8 |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,536 | 12.8 |
| 1912 | 12 | #1,716 | 21.5 |
| 1911 | 5 | #2,861 | 12.0 |
| 1910 | 5 | #2,778 | 12.6 |
| 1908 | 7 | #1,859 | 20.9 |
| 1906 | 6 | #1,945 | 20.3 |
| 1902 | 7 | #1,590 | 26.5 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,971 | 19.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Willma a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Willma has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Willma: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Willma, and how old are they?
An estimated 165 Americans named Willma and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (25% of everyone recorded); the median is 78 years old and half are between 73 and 86. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 341 people named Willma (307 women and girls, 34 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 231 born in the U.S. The Census count is 48% 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.
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 Willma?
Willma is a less common spelling of Wilma: SSA has recorded 673 Willma and 140,855 Wilma since 1880.
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 142,482 babies since 1880, Willma is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 47 babies recorded by SSA was a Willma (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 Willma
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 Willma and names like it
- Compare Willma and WilmaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sWillma peaked in 1918.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Willma.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Willma alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with WMost given first.