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Williamson vs Wilma

American parents have registered 140,855 Wilmas since 1880, against 96 Williamsons. Wilma is still ahead, with 41 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Williamson against Wilma, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Williamson Wilma

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Wilma has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2014, when Williamson had 6 and Wilma had 20.

Side by side

  Williamson Wilma
Total US births 96140,855
Most in one year 94,202
Babies in 2025 941
Estimated living today 8038,000
Median age today 2177
Peak year 19241925
Best rank 3,023rd boys62nd girls
Rank in 2025 8,243rd3,645th
First recorded 19241880
Girls / boys 0 / 96140,101 / 754

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Wilmas alive today are over 77; half the Williamsons are over 21. That is 56 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Williamson and Wilma.