Wilhelm
Germanic at root, built from words for "will" and "protection": a resolute protector. Only about 2,400 men in Poland carry it and fewer arrive each year, so most Poles have never met one.
Wilhelm Pronunciation
Wilhelm is pronounced VEEL-khelm (/ˈvilxɛlm/).
What Wilhelm means
Where Wilhelm comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Wilhelm comes from two old Germanic roots. The first, wil, means will or resolve; the second, helm, means helmet or protection. Together they give the meaning the name still holds in Polish, zdecydowany obrońca, a resolute protector.
The name traveled far. Its Norman cousin William crossed into England after 1066 and settled there for good. German history, meanwhile, kept the older spelling close. Wilhelm Grimm, one of the two brothers behind the fairy tales, carried it. So did Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays in 1895 and later took the first Nobel Prize in Physics.
The cross-gender form, Wilhelmina, once named a Dutch queen who reigned for more than fifty years. In a Polish class register, a Wilhelm still stands out among the Jakubs and Szymons, a little formal, faintly old-fashioned. The roots underneath it stay plain: resolve joined to protection, a resolute protector.
How many people are named Wilhelm
1 in 8824 men in Poland is named Wilhelm. 2,419 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #648 among male names.
Wilhelm's popularity over time
6 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #903 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2012. Still the #648 name among living men, even as it slips to #903 among newborns.
Where Wilhelm is most popular
Wilhelm is most popular in Silesian, 159% above the national average (12 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+150%) and Lesser Poland (+8%). It is least common in Lower Silesian and Greater Poland, 37% and 9% below average respectively.
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Silesian12 boys born+159%
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Masovian18 boys born+150%
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Lesser Poland5 boys born+8%
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Pomeranian3 boys born0%
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Greater Poland4 boys born−9%
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Lower Silesian2 boys born−37%
Wilhelm as a middle name
Wilhelm is a first name for 2,419 men in Poland and a middle name for another 3,586, a 40/60 split — almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 144th, between Michael (3,643) and Klaudiusz (3,489).
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142
3,698Teofil
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143
3,643Michael
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1443,586Wilhelm
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145
3,489Klaudiusz
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146
3,239Brunon
When Wilhelm celebrates name day
Wilhelm appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 10 January.