Willibald
A Germanic name built from "will" and "bold": resolute, brave of will. Barely a footprint in Poland now, worn by around 40 men and given to no newborns in years, so meeting one would stay with you.
Willibald Pronunciation
Willibald is pronounced veel-LEE-bahlt (/vilˈlibalt/).
What Willibald means
Where Willibald comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Willibald comes straight out of Germanic speech, built from two blunt pieces: willo, the will, and bald, bold or brave. Put them together and you get a plain reading, resolute, brave will. The German world kept the name closest, and it stayed masculine, without the softening diminutives that other names collect. No pet form, no feminine twin. Willibald stands alone.
The name has one famous carrier. Saint Willibald lived from about 700 to 787 and became the first bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria. Before that he walked to the Holy Land, and a nun named Hugeburc wrote down what he saw. Her account, the Hodoeporicon, counts among the earliest travel writings by an Englishman. So the meaning and the man line up. A brave will took him across a continent on foot.
For a Polish reader the name looks foreign, and it is. On a class register in Poland you would notice it at once, sitting apart from the Kacpers and Wojciechs. The sense stays legible all the same. Waleczny, silnej woli. Willibald means what its two old halves say.
How many people are named Willibald
1 in 533655 men in Poland is named Willibald. 40 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #6179 among male names.
Willibald as a middle name
Willibald is a first name for 40 men in Poland and a middle name for another 18, a 69/31 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2181st, between Wieczysław (18) and Yanis (18).
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#2179 Wei18
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#2180 Wieczysław18
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#2181 Willibald18
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#2182 Yanis18
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#2183 Abdelaziz17