Willa: Meaning of Baby Name Willa

About the Name Willa

Willa is the feminine form of William (see separate entry on William for the Old Germanic Wilhelm etymology — composed of wil (will, desire) and helm (helmet, protection) — yielding "resolute protector"). Willa has been used continuously in English-speaking countries since the medieval period as the feminine equivalent of William.

The name's most influential American bearer is American novelist Willa Cather (Wilella Sibert Cather, 1873–1947, the iconic American novelist whose works including O Pioneers! 1913, My Ántonia 1918, and Death Comes for the Archbishop 1927 made her one of the foundational figures of early-20th-century American literary fiction; she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1923 for One of Ours).

Willa's American climb is part of the broader 21st-century vintage-revival wave alongside Hattie, Sadie, and Eloise. The name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. Notable contemporary bearers include American actress Willa Holland (born 1991, the American actress of Arrow); contemporary American actress Willa Fitzgerald (born 1991, the American actress of Reacher); and the contemporary American filmmaker Willa Bennett. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the in-built William-classical-Germanic pedigree, the strong Willa Cather American literary cultural anchor, and the popular two-syllable -a ending family (Willa, Hazel, Stella, Greta). Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to vintage-revival names. The name reads as both classical-vintage and contemporary American. Common nicknames Will (the dominant short form, casual and warm — also a popular standalone name on its own) and the rare Lilla each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Willa, Wila, and Willah have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Willa (essentially identical across English/Dutch/Italian), Wilhelmine (German), Guillemette (French), and the broader William/Wilhelm family.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Willa

552

Anglo baby names in our dictionary

150

Anglo female names

61

5-letter W-names in our dictionary

79

W-female names total

2010–2025

years of US SSA records (16 total)

10,408

total US births named Willa (all years)

US Popularity History (2010–2025)

📉 Falling fast: Willa dropped 71 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#351 in 2020 → #422 in 2025).

Annual US births named Willa by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2019 with 889 girls named Willa (girl rank #356 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #422 for girls (742 US births). That's 66 places below its 2019 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Willa Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Willa the strongest states are Vermont, Maine, North Dakota.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Vermont	#94	17
2	Maine	#134	37
3	North Dakota	#144	50
4	Nebraska	#147	151
5	District of Columbia	#171	32
6	Minnesota	#171	311
7	South Dakota	#180	47
8	Montana	#189	38
9	New Hampshire	#192	50
10	Colorado	#217	239

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Florida	#758	201
2	Texas	#741	390
3	Arizona	#684	75
4	Maryland	#679	82
5	New Jersey	#627	104
6	California	#618	519
7	Louisiana	#606	62
8	Oklahoma	#532	85
9	Ohio	#522	204
10	Indiana	#521	123

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Willa in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Famous People Named Willa

1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Willa.

Willa Cather was a Pulitzer Prize winning American author, known for her war classic ‘One of Ours’.

Browse more famous Willas and similar first names →

Looking for names like Willa?

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.

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Compare Willa to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Willa against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Willa vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Willa vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Willa vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Willa vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Willa vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Willa vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Willa vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Willa vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

Compare to a different name →