Willson
Willson was given to 8 boys in 2025, #9,654 among boys’ names; 368 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Willson by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Willson?
#9,654 among boys’ names, 2025
Willson fell from #8,704 in 2015 to #9,654 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born held at 4.7 per million.
14 babies in 2014, the peak
Willson peaked in 2014, when 14 boys were given it, #6,288 among boys’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 57% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #9,654 | 4.7 |
| 2024 | 5 | #14,163 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | 10 | #8,251 | 5.7 |
| 2021 | 11 | #7,552 | 6.3 |
| 2020 | 14 | #6,268 | 8.1 |
| 2019 | 13 | #6,744 | 7.2 |
| 2018 | 10 | #8,120 | 5.5 |
| 2017 | 6 | #12,168 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 13 | #6,699 | 6.9 |
| 2015 | 9 | #8,704 | 4.7 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 14 | #6,288 | 7.3 |
| 2013 | 9 | #8,740 | 4.8 |
| 2012 | 11 | #7,521 | 5.8 |
| 2011 | 7 | #10,719 | 3.7 |
| 2010 | 8 | #9,642 | 4.2 |
| 2009 | 7 | #10,917 | 3.5 |
| 2008 | 9 | #8,981 | 4.4 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,875 | 4.3 |
| 2006 | 7 | #10,606 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | 6 | #11,407 | 3.0 |
| 2004 | 7 | #9,892 | 3.5 |
| 2003 | 9 | #7,792 | 4.6 |
| 2002 | 8 | #8,411 | 4.1 |
| 2000 | 6 | #10,297 | 3.1 |
| 1999 | 10 | #6,510 | 5.2 |
| 1998 | 10 | #6,290 | 5.2 |
| 1997 | 8 | #7,251 | 4.2 |
| 1996 | 5 | #10,476 | 2.6 |
| 1995 | 5 | #10,276 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 7 | #7,608 | 3.6 |
| 1991 | 7 | #7,230 | 3.5 |
| 1990 | 9 | #5,796 | 4.4 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,906 | 3.5 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,726 | 4.2 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,924 | 3.2 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,638 | 2.8 |
| 1946 | 5 | #4,006 | 3.1 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,959 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,010 | 4.7 |
| 1927 | 7 | #3,772 | 6.2 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,882 | 4.6 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,208 | 8.2 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,796 | 5.1 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,796 | 4.9 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,589 | 5.4 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,886 | 6.7 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,644 | 12.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Willson a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Willson has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Willson: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Willson, and how old are they?
An estimated 302 Americans named Willson and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (82% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 28. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 460 people named Willson (8 women and girls, 452 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 262 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 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 Willson?
Willson is a less common spelling of Wilson: SSA has recorded 368 Willson and 49,017 Wilson since 1880.
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 49,385 babies since 1880, Willson is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 413 babies (1.9%), again the second most given.
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 Willson
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 Willson and names like it
- Compare Willson and WilsonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sWillson peaked in 2014.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Willson.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Willson alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with WMost given first.