Liam
- Pronunciation
- [Li-am]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Irish short form of William; will and protection elements
- Origin
- Irish
Meaning and history of Liam
Liam is an Irish short form of William. William’s Germanic elements refer to will or desire and a helmet or protection. A description such as “resolute protector” summarizes those elements; “helmeted” on its own omits the name’s relationship to William. The popularity chart treats Liam and William as separate written names.
Name-history references: Liam · William. Reviewed October 27, 2026.
By Marvin Tang. Popularity figures use an imported selection of SSA records; SSA does not supply name meanings or etymologies. Editorial references, where available, are listed with the name explanation. Sources and coverage.
Quick Facts About Liam
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual imported US counts for Liam by recorded sex, from US Social Security Administration records. Highest count in the imported records: 2024 with 22,164 boys named Liam (boy rank #1 that year).
Latest imported observation: in 2025, ranked #1 for boys (20,818 imported records).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Coverage: imported US Social Security card-application records, not a complete birth census. Historical coverage is narrower, including top-100 selection before 2000; recent imports also use catalog and rank filters. Missing rows can reflect those filters or source privacy limits and must not be read as zero or fewer than five uses. Spellings and recorded sex are kept separate.
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Look up Liam across states
Compare this exact spelling in one year and recorded sex list. Missing state records remain unknown.
Observed State Ranks for Liam
Average boy-name rank across the same 2016–2025 window, limited to 51 jurisdictions with every year imported. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings. This is an ordinal comparison, not a per-capita rate. States with missing years are excluded. For Liam the lowest observed averages are in Florida, New Jersey, Nevada.
Lowest observed average rank
Highest observed average rank
| # | State | Avg rank | Imported count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #10 | 1,097 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | #9 | 486 |
| 3 | Wyoming | #8 | 243 |
| 4 | Vermont | #8 | 235 |
| 5 | Maine | #7 | 551 |
| 6 | New Hampshire | #6 | 662 |
| 7 | Alabama | #6 | 2,270 |
| 8 | Montana | #6 | 448 |
| 9 | North Dakota | #5 | 486 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #4 | 2,848 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. Only states with all 10 annual observations for this spelling and recorded sex are compared. Missing states are excluded, not assigned zero. Average rank measures position in state rankings, not a per-capita rate. Local import filters and SSA privacy limits can both create gaps. Coverage and limitations.
Related Forms in This Catalog
Open each form for its own meaning, language history, and exact-spelling usage records.
| Name |
|---|
| Lyam |
Famous People Named Liam
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Liam.
- Liam Gallagher — Rock Singer (1972)
- Liam Neeson — Movie Actor (1952)
Looking for names like Liam?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Liam to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Liam against names with the largest imported counts for boys-name peers (top 8 with every year imported, 2016–2025). Names with missing annual observations are excluded from this comparison.
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