Willye
Willye was last recorded in 1959, when 6 babies were given it; 366 Americans have been recorded with it between 1901 and 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Willye by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Willye?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,233, in 1959; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
15 babies in 1923, the peak
Willye peaked in 1923, when 15 girls were given it, #2,461 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | 6 | #6,233 | 3.0 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,606 | 2.6 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,381 | 2.7 |
| 1951 | 8 | #4,379 | 4.4 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,729 | 4.1 |
| 1949 | 5 | #6,047 | 2.9 |
| 1948 | 5 | #6,023 | 2.9 |
| 1947 | 11 | #3,442 | 6.2 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,408 | 4.5 |
| 1945 | 11 | #2,912 | 8.4 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | 6 | #4,564 | 4.5 |
| 1943 | 10 | #3,244 | 7.2 |
| 1942 | 13 | #2,659 | 9.6 |
| 1941 | 8 | #3,553 | 6.6 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,958 | 8.7 |
| 1939 | 9 | #3,139 | 8.2 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,977 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 8 | #3,427 | 7.5 |
| 1935 | 10 | #2,922 | 9.5 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,558 | 7.5 |
| 1930 | 9 | #3,339 | 8.0 |
| 1929 | 11 | #2,914 | 9.9 |
| 1928 | 8 | #3,736 | 6.9 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,789 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 10 | #3,263 | 8.4 |
| 1925 | 10 | #3,357 | 8.2 |
| 1924 | 6 | #5,042 | 4.8 |
| 1923 | 15 | #2,461 | 12.4 |
| 1922 | 14 | #2,607 | 11.7 |
| 1921 | 7 | #4,446 | 5.7 |
| 1920 | 12 | #2,896 | 10.0 |
| 1919 | 11 | #2,998 | 9.7 |
| 1918 | 10 | #3,239 | 8.6 |
| 1917 | 13 | #2,547 | 12.0 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,824 | 10.5 |
| 1915 | 10 | #2,891 | 10.2 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,633 | 11.8 |
| 1912 | 6 | #2,969 | 10.8 |
| 1911 | 6 | #2,455 | 14.3 |
| 1910 | 5 | #2,780 | 12.6 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,389 | 15.7 |
| 1905 | 8 | #1,535 | 27.4 |
| 1901 | 7 | #1,463 | 29.2 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Willye a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Willye has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Willye: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Willye, and how old are they?
An estimated 84 Americans named Willye 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 104 people named Willye (95 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 117 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
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 6 names spelled alike, given to 37,857 babies since 1880, Willye is the fourth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 758 babies recorded by SSA was a Willye (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 Willye
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 Willye and names like it
- Compare Willye and WillaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sWillye peaked in 1923.
- Mississippi’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Willye since 1910.
- The top names of 1923The year the most babies were named Willye.
- Names starting with WMost given first.