Willson
surname · Latin script
Meaning: A surname originating as a patronymic
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/wɪɫsən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Willson is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- AUAustralia≈1 in 21K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 22K
- CACanada≈1 in 24K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 389 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 12K (inferred from the name graph)
9,659 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
Tanzania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A surname originating as a patronymic.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Willson counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 9,659 | 1 in 34K | 9.7K | Willson | 389 |
| NG Nigeria | ≈4,900 est. | ≈1 in 44K | — | Willson | 33 |
| TZ Tanzania | ≈4,900 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | Willson | 16 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈3,100 est. | ≈1 in 22K | 3.8K | Willson | 177 |
| CA Canada | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 24K | — | Willson | 118 |
| AU Australia | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 21K | 1 | Willson | 119 |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈220 est. | ≈1 in 23K | — | Willson | 35 |
9,659 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Augustus Everett Willsonb. 1846USAmerican politician (1846-1931)
- Thomas Willsonb. 1860CACanadian inventor (1860–1915)
- Millicent Hearstb. 1882USnot in their usual nameVaudeville performer, socialite, philanthropist, and owner of Hearst Corporation (1882-1974)
- Henry Willsonb. 1911USAmerican talent agent (1911-1978)
- Grant Willsonb. 1939USAmerican chemist
- Laurel Rose Willsonb. 1941USDisgraced American writer (1941–2002)
- Paul Willsonb. 1945USAmerican actor
- Lee Anne Willsonb. 1947USAmerican astronomer
- Quentin Willsonb. 1957GBBritish television presenter
- Asheb. 1993USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer-songwriter
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 43 sources across 22 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 9.7K | #3,679 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 9.2K | #3,562 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 9K | #3,850 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 3.8K | #2,125 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Willson mean, and where does it come from?
- A surname originating as a patronymic. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Willson?
- A machine transcription gives /wɪɫsən/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Willson have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 9.7 thousand people named Willson, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled willson.
- How common is the name Willson?
- In the United States, the national register counted 9,659 people named Willson in 2010, about 1 in 34 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Willson?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/willsonThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Willson”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.