Billy
Billy is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 210 births. Its best rank was 19th, in 1931, 1935.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 2100.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19349,562 births
- Best rank
- #19first in 1931
- Since 1880
- 389,442people given the name
The story in the numbers
384,025 boys have been named Billy in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1934, with 9,562 births — 0.93% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 210 births in 2024, against 9,562 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1948, and the 1930s alone account for 23%. It has spent 139 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 59 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 5,417 girls have also been given it, 1.4% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Billy | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 63 | |
| 1890s | 99 | |
| 1900s | 209 | |
| 1910s | 3,016 | |
| 1920s | 42,096 | |
| 1930s | 88,340 | |
| 1940s | 67,831 | |
| 1950s | 59,278 | |
| 1960s | 48,466 | |
| 1970s | 33,220 | |
| 1980s | 20,651 | |
| 1990s | 10,943 | |
| 2000s | 5,670 | |
| 2010s | 3,099 | |
| 2020s | 1,044 |
In 1934, its biggest year
Billy was the 20th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1934 were Robert, James, John, William and Richard. See all of 1934.
Names that rose and fell with Billy
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Duainepeak 1932
- Deraldpeak 1929
- Genepeak 1937
- Daroldpeak 1932
- Buddypeak 1935
- Bobbypeak 1937
- Donaldpeak 1934
- Geroldpeak 1939
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.