Mostly boys · peaked in 1910
Willie name popularity since 1925
411,101 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Willie (18.4% girls, 81.6% boys). Half of them were born in 1947 or earlier, so the typical Willie is about 79 years old in 2026. Willie peaked in 1910 as the #11 name for boys, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.
Key facts
- US babies since 1925
- 411,101
- Named Willie, 1925–2025
- Peak year
- 1910
- #11 for boys that year
- In 2025
- Not top 1,000
- #1,322 for boys in 2025
- Girls / boys
- 81.6% boys
- 75,751 girls · 335,350 boys
- Most popular in
- Mississippi
- 10.03× its national share
Peak year is the year Willie made up the largest share of US boys, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.
Willie births per year, 1925–2025
The biggest year on this chart was 1947. Measured as a share of all babies, Willie peaked earlier, in 1910.
- Steepest fall: Between 2016 and 2021, Willie's share of baby boys fell by 41%, from 1 in 6,450 to 1 in 10,900.
Shaded on the chart. This compares Willie's share of all US boys five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Willie.
Decade by decade
Babies named Willie in each decade, and its rank among boys' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).
| Decade | Girls | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925–29 | 18,410 | 34,346 | – |
| 1930s | 23,873 | 62,466 | #30 |
| 1940s | 18,098 | 72,422 | #31 |
| 1950s | 10,059 | 66,460 | #54 |
| 1960s | 3,631 | 39,812 | #93 |
| 1970s | 1,021 | 23,966 | #118 |
| 1980s | 458 | 16,892 | #171 |
| 1990s | 132 | 9,716 | #319 |
| 2000s | 18 | 5,157 | #513 |
| 2010s | 20 | 3,132 | #774 |
| 2020–25 | 31 | 981 | #1,322 |
Ranks count every name given to at least 5 boys that year, so they can go past 1,000.
Generation fingerprint
38.7% of babies named Willie from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Silent Generation years (1928–1945). The full split by generation:
Where Willie is most popular
The index compares Willie's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Willie.
| State | Index | Babies |
|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | 10.03× | 49,925 |
| Alabama | 6.70× | 48,732 |
| South Carolina | 5.46× | 31,421 |
| Georgia | 5.00× | 56,790 |
| Arkansas | 3.47× | 14,667 |
Other spellings
Spellings that sound like Willie and were given to at least 1,000 boys from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.
| Spelling | Boys | Peak year |
|---|---|---|
| Willie (this page) | 335,350 | 1910 |
| Wiley | 13,460 | 1882 |
| Willy | 3,697 | 1906 |
Names with a similar story
Of the other 499 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Willie's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Willie.
Names from the same era
Other common names that peaked within two years of Willie (1910).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data