Willa
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Meaning
feminine form of William ("will helmet")
The story
Willa is the graceful feminine of William, sharing its old Germanic roots in wil, will or desire, and helm, helmet or protection, so it carries the sense of a resolute, protective will. It also serves as a warm short form of Wilhelmina. The name belongs above all to Willa Cather, one of the great American novelists, whose luminous stories of the prairie, from My Antonia to O Pioneers, gave it a lasting association with wide skies and quiet strength. After decades of rarity Willa has returned, brand new to many parents and reading as current as it has ever been, part of the revival of soft but sturdy vintage names for girls. Short, strong and a little windswept, Willa hands a child a novelist's clear eye and a name that means a protective will, all in two open, easygoing syllables.
The formal names behind Willa
Willa is an established short form of this name.
Wilhelmina · Germanic origin · Dutch and German feminine form of Wilhelm ("will helmet")
Willa across languages
One shared root links 12 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Germanic Willahelm, wil "will, desire" + helm "helmet, protection"
The constellation
9 more branches of this family
How popular is Willa around the world?
In the United States, 4,761 babies were named Willa between 2020 and 2025. In New Zealand, 30 girls named Willa were registered in 2025.
Willa is on the official records of the United States, New Zealand, South Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Scotland, Austria and Brazil.
United States
1 in 4,600
In the United States, 4,761 babies were named Willa between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Willa peaked in the 2020s.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
New Zealand
1 in 1,900
In New Zealand, 30 girls named Willa were registered in 2025.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from New Zealand birth registrations, grouped by registration year; any name under 10 in a year is excluded at source. Shares divide by Stats NZ’s count of births registered to mothers living in New Zealand, under 1% below the registry’s own count. Source: Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), baby name popularity over time
South Australia
1 in 4,6002017
In South Australia, 4 girls were registered as Willa in 2017.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Canada
1 in 5,400
In Canada, 68 girls named Willa were born in 2024, the 436th most common name among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
England and Wales
1 in 11,000
In England and Wales, 52 girls named Willa were born in 2025, the 705th most common name among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Scotland
1 in 11,000
In Scotland, 4 girls named Willa were registered in 2024, the 638th most common name among girls that year.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Austria
1 in 76,000
In Austria, 1 girl named Willa was born in 2025, ranked 1,875th among girls that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
Brazil
1 in 330,000
At the 2022 census, 669 people in Brazil were named Willa, ranked 10,934th, with a median age of 27.
Among people named Willa living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 29 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Ireland
last on record 2024
Willa is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Willa deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Willa 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 Willa fits with your family’s names and surname.
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