Willard
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Resolute, Brave
- Origin
- English
About the Name Willard
Willard is an English surname derived from the Old High German elements wil ("will" or "desire") and hard ("brave" or "strong"), combining to mean "resolute and brave" — a compound that captures the same determined spirit as William and other wil- names of Germanic origin. From its origins as an English family surname it crossed into use as a given name in the nineteenth century, following the common Anglo-American practice of adopting family surnames as first names to honor notable relatives or preserve family identity across generations. The name carries a solid, purposeful character that reflects its roots in two of the most admired qualities in the Germanic naming tradition.
Willard first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1913 and reached its peak in 1915 at rank #58, accumulating over 27,000 top-1000 births across its chart run. Its period of active top-1000 use was relatively brief and concentrated: the name last appeared in the top-1000 in 1926 at rank #100, its active period falling entirely within the 1910s and 1920s — a generation when strong Germanic-rooted English surnames as first names were a pronounced naming fashion.
Willard carries the distinguished character of a Victorian surname name with genuine Germanic depth. It offers a full, three-syllable formal presence with no recorded short forms or variants in this entry, giving it a name that stands entirely on its own terms.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Willard
US Popularity History (1913–1926)
Annual US births named Willard by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1915 with 2,889 boys named Willard (boy rank #58 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1926, ranked #100 for boys (1,810 US births). That's 42 places below its 1915 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.
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Compare Willard to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Willard against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).