Wilhelmina
Meaning
Dutch and German feminine form of Wilhelm ("will helmet")
The story
Wilhelmina is the stately feminine of Wilhelm, will and helmet in the old Germanic elements, a name that arrived in America with Dutch and German families and has always sounded like it owned a portrait gallery. Its defining bearer is Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who inherited the throne in 1890 at the age of ten and reigned for nearly fifty-eight years; when the Nazis occupied her country she refused to be a decorative exile, broadcasting defiance to the Dutch resistance over Radio Oranje from London until liberation came. Churchill is said to have called her the only man in the Dutch government. In American records Wilhelmina is an old presence that thinned after midcentury and has begun to stir again lately, part of the wider return of long, grand names with sweet short forms: Willa, Mina, Billie. It waited out a century of fashion without ever losing its posture.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Wilhelmina peaked in the 1890s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
20 people · the #124,180 first name in Brazil · median age 65
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Wilhelmina
People given the name Wilhelmina in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 2019. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Wilhelmina deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Wilhelmina truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Wilhelmina fits with your family’s names and surname.
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