Billy
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A fellow, companion, comrade, mate; partner, brother
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/bɪli/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Billy is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- IEIreland≈1 in 822(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 967
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 1K
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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #629 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 575 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 822 (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,100,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A fellow, companion, comrade, mate; partner, brother.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Billy 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈1,100,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Billy | 44 |
| US United States | #257 | 173,433 | 1 in 1.9K | 171K | Billy | 575 |
| GB United Kingdom | #300 | ≈40,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | 17 | Billy | 269 |
| PH Philippines | #821 | ≈31,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.5K | — | Billy | 127 |
| IT Italy | #425 | ≈27,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | — | Billy | 50 |
| HK Hong Kong | #178 | ≈7,000 est. | ≈1 in 1K | — | Billy | 77 |
| SG Singapore | #105 | ≈6,400 est. | ≈1 in 967 | — | Billy | 80 |
| IE Ireland | #131 | ≈6,300 est. | ≈1 in 822 | 87 | Billy | 103 |
| NZ New Zealand | #232 | ≈4,100 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | 49 | Billy | 99 |
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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–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).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Billy is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, voir De Billy
as a nameDictionnaire des noms de famille du Canada français. Anthroponymie et généalogie. 2e édition
In Swedish, Billy är ursprungligen en engelsk smekform till → William.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
In German, männl. Vom., engHsche Koseform von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
In Swedish, a male given name borrowed from English
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Billy Wilderb. 1906USAustrian and American filmmaker (1906–2002)
- Billy Wrightb. 1924GBEnglish footballer (1924-1994)
- Billy Williamsb. 1929GBBritish cinematographer
- Billy Goldenbergb. 1936USAmerican composer and songwriter (1936-2020)
- Billy Connollyb. 1942GBScottish actor and comedian
- Billy Crystalb. 1948USAmerican actor, comedian, writer, producer, director and television presenter (born 1948)
- Billy Zaneb. 1966USAmerican actor (born 1966)
- Billy Burkeb. 1966USAmerican actor, musician
- Billy Boydb. 1968GBScottish actor and musician
- Billy Porterb. 1969USAmerican singer and actor
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)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 100 sources across 56 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 171K | #320 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2K | #320 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 203 | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2019 | 87 | #75 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2025 | 49 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 17 | #234 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 14 | — |
Reference works 7
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 are other forms of the name Billy?
- In the etymology graph, William, Guillermo and Guilherme are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Willie and Bill.
- Is Billy a male or female name?
- Billy is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Billy mean, and where does it come from?
- A fellow, companion, comrade, mate; partner, brother. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Billy have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.1 million people named Billy in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled billy.
- How common is the name Billy?
- In the United States, the national register counted 173,433 people named Billy in 2020, about 1 in 1.9 thousand residents.
- How common is Billy compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Billy is the 105th most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Billy?
- A machine transcription gives /bɪli/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Billy?
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/billyThe 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, “Billy” — the 105th most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.