Willis is a boy's name of English origin meaning “wilderness.” In 2024 it was given to 49 boys in the United States.
Willis at a glance
Gender
Boy name
Origin
English & American
Meaning
“wilderness”
Pronunciation
/ˈwɪlɪs/
About the name Willis
Willis belongs to the English & American tradition. Its meaning — “wilderness” — is the sense carried by its English roots, and it is the meaning we verified against published sources for this page.
In the United States, Willis first appears in Social Security records in 1880. It climbed to its best-ever rank of #86 in 1880, and in 2024 49 babies received the name — 52,283 in total since 1880. Those are the official counts, not estimates.
Meaning and origin for this page were checked against this source. US popularity figures are from the Social Security Administration's public baby-names data. England & Wales figures are from the Office for National Statistics. If you spot an error, write to [email protected] — accuracy is the whole point of this site, and corrections are made fast.