How popular is the baby name Willem in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Willem.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Willem


Posts that Mention the Name Willem

Popular baby names in the Netherlands, 2022

The Netherlands

The country of the Netherlands, located in Northwestern Europe, is bordered by both Belgium and Germany.

Last year, from January to November, the Netherlands welcomed more than 168,000 babies — over 82,000 girls and over 86,000 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma and Noah.

Here are the Netherlands’ top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Emma, 677 baby girls
  2. Julia, 655
  3. Mila, 624
  4. Sophie, 620
  5. Olivia, 591
  6. Yara, 559
  7. Saar, 532 – short form of Sarah
  8. Nora, 524
  9. Tess, 509
  10. Noor, 501
  11. Milou, 489
  12. Sara, 486
  13. Liv, 482
  14. Zoë, 473
  15. Evi, 466
  16. Anna, 455
  17. Luna, 451
  18. Lotte, 423 (tie)
  19. Nina, 423 (tie)
  20. Eva, 405
  21. Emily, 389
  22. Lauren, 386
  23. Maeve, 384
  24. Lina, 383
  25. Elin, 379
  26. Maud, 368
  27. Sarah, 350
  28. Nova, 345
  29. Loïs, 340 (tie)
  30. Sofia, 340 (tie)
  31. Mia, 339
  32. Sofie, 332
  33. Lieke, 330
  34. Fleur, 328
  35. Isa, 325
  36. Fien, 324 – short form of Josefien
  37. Lynn, 319
  38. Hailey, 312
  39. Roos, 297
  40. Julie, 290
  41. Livia, 288
  42. Fenna, 284 – feminine form of Fen (a Frisian short form of Ferdinand)
  43. Ella, 279
  44. Sophia, 275
  45. Bo, 274
  46. Lily, 252
  47. Ivy, 248
  48. Romée, 246
  49. Lena, 244
  50. Noé, 241

Boy Names

  1. Noah, 871 baby boys
  2. Liam, 666
  3. Luca, 664
  4. Lucas, 652
  5. Mees, 621 – short form of Bartholomeus
  6. Finn, 596
  7. James, 594
  8. Milan, 591
  9. Levi, 585
  10. Sem, 582
  11. Daan, 538
  12. Noud, 533 – short form of Arnoud (the Dutch form of Arnold)
  13. Luuk, 518
  14. Adam, 508
  15. Sam, 495
  16. Bram, 470
  17. Zayn, 447
  18. Mason, 440
  19. Benjamin, 409
  20. Boaz, 369
  21. Siem, 360 – short form of Simon
  22. Guus, 356
  23. Morris, 353
  24. Olivier, 349 (tie)
  25. Thomas, 349 (tie)
  26. Teun, 346 – short form of Antonius
  27. Gijs, 335 (tie) – short form of Gijsbert
  28. Mats, 335 (tie)
  29. Max, 326
  30. Jesse, 317
  31. Julian, 315
  32. Otis, 314
  33. Floris, 312
  34. Lars, 307
  35. David, 304 (tie)
  36. Jake, 304 (tie)
  37. Moos, 303 – short form of Mozes
  38. Rayan, 300
  39. Jens, 291
  40. Joep, 289
  41. Owen, 286
  42. Thijs, 273
  43. Jan, 270 (3-way tie)
  44. Oliver, 270 (3-way tie)
  45. Willem, 270 (3-way tie)
  46. Mick, 269
  47. Jack, 262
  48. Jurre, 259 – short form of Jurryt (the Frisian form of Gerard)
  49. Abel, 254
  50. Kai, 253

Dutch onomastician Gerrit Bloothooft noted that, if similar names had been counted together, the name-groups Saar/Sara/Sarah and Luca/Lucas/Luuk would have topped the girls’ list and the boys’ list, respectively.

The girls’ top 100 included Cato (55th), Veerle (60th), Puck (75th), and Merel (83rd).

The boys’ top 100 included Jaxx (56th), Sven (64th), Hidde (72nd), and Jip (78th).

Finally, here are the Netherlands’ 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare.

Sources: Kindernamen home | Kindernamen | SVB, Emma en Noah de populairste kindernamen van 2022, Population growth almost doubled in 2022, Behind the Name

Baby name story: Poppet

Portrait of Poppet (cropped), painted circa 1935 by Augustus John.
Poppet John

Welsh painter Augustus John and his second wife, Dorothy (called “Dorelia”), welcomed a daughter in 1912.

They’d planned to name the baby Elizabeth Anne, but they ended up calling her Poppet. (The British English term poppet is used to refer to “a person, especially a child, that you like or love.”)

Here’s how Poppet’s older bother Romilly (b. 1906) recalled the naming process:

I remember a grand discussion in the walled-in summer-house about what she should be called — a discussion which has been going on ever since. Elizabeth Anne was the provisional choice on that occasion, but it satisfied nobody, and the baby was finally registered as ‘one female child’, pending the discovery of the ideal name. Meanwhile [half-brother] Caspar, contemplating her one day, chanced to remark: ‘What a little poppet it is!’ — and Poppet she was called from that day forward. A real name was still intended to be found for her, but we had not reckoned with the force of habit, and, in spite of intermittent consultation, and at least one attempt to revert to the original suggestion, Anne, she has continued [to be called] Poppet to this day.

I can’t find Poppet’s birth registration online, but “Poppet” is indeed the name used legally in the Marriage Registration Index (three times: 1931, 1940, and 1952) and the the Death Registration Index (1997).

Poppet’s third and final marriage was to dutch artist Willem Pol, making fashion model Talitha Pol her step-daughter. After Talitha’s death in 1971, Poppet and Willem raised Talita’s son Tara at their home in the south of France.

Sources:

P.S. Caspar John (b. 1903) ended up becoming the head of the Royal Navy in the early 1960s.

Popular baby names in British Columbia (Canada), 2016

According to British Columbia’s Vital Statistics Agency, the most popular baby names in the province in 2016 were Olivia and Lucas.

Here are British Columbia’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 265 baby girls
2. Emma, 218
3. Charlotte, 194
4. Ava, 185
5. Sophia, 175
6. Chloe, 164
7. Emily, 155
8. Abigail, 152
9. Amelia, 141
10. Evelyn, 138

Boy Names
1. Lucas, 231 baby boys
2. Benjamin, 222
3. Ethan, 213
4. Oliver, 210
5. Liam, 200
6. Noah, 199
7. James, 189
8. William, 186
9. Jacob, 176
10. Owen, 174

In the girls’ top 10, Evelyn replaced Ella.

In the boys’ top 10, Noah, James, and Owen replaced Alexander, Mason, and Hunter.

Names at the other end of the spectrum — used just five times each in 2016 — include:

  • Althea, Blaire, Daya, Emberly, Felicity, Genesis, Hallie, Jaskirat, Lisa, Melissa, Naira, Oona, Patricia, Remy, Silver, Taryn, Uma, Violette, Whitney (girl names)
  • Augustus, Brixton, Cristiano, Duncan, Emilio, Finnian, Gibson, Hassan, Jared, Koa, London, Mantaj, Noel, Rayden, Shea, Tony, Umar, Willem, Zian (boy names)

The top names in 2015 were Emma and Oliver.

According to preliminary 2017 data (covering January 1st to December 15th) the top two names of the current year are likely Olivia and Benjamin.

Sources: Baby’s Most Chosen Names in British Columbia, 2016, British Columbia’s top baby names (prelim. 2017)

Baby name story: Tesselschade

Glass engraver Maria Tesselschade Visccher (1594-1649)
Maria Tesselschade Visccher

The other day, I visited the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam website to admire some Willem Claeszoon Heda paintings. (Here’s more on the name Claeszoon.)

A few clicks later, I was learning about römer drinking glasses, and that led me to a Dutch glass engraver Maria Tesselschade Visccher (b. 1594).

There’s an interesting story behind the name “Tesselschade.” Although, as with Return Meigs, so many versions of the story exist that it’s hard to know which to believe.

The name Tesselschade is made up of two parts: Tessel, which refers to the Dutch island of Texel, and schade, Dutch for “damage.” Sources agree that Tesselschade’s father, Roemer, was a Dutch merchant whose ships had been caught in a storm off the coast of Texel sometime before her birth. But sources disagree on when the storm happened, how many ships sank, and whether or not Roemer had been aboard one of them and rescued.

Tesselschade ended up having three daughters: Taddea, Maria Tesselschade, and an unnamed third. She outlived all of them. I don’t believe the name was given to any other descendants.

Sources:

  • Carroll, Jane Louise and Alison G. Stewart. Saints, Sinners, and Sisters. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003.
  • “Lights of Dutch Literature.” The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science and Art. May 1854: 134-141.
  • Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
  • Sneller, A. Agnes and Olga van Marion. De Gedichten van Tesselschade Roemers. Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 1994.