Liam is rooted in the Germanic-derived, French-influenced, classic English name William. More directly, Liam owes its existence to the people of Ireland, who shortened Ulliam, the Irish version of William, to the widely adored stand-alone name it is today. Liam, pronounced
"lee-um" or "lee-am," means "guardian."
The road from William to Liam was long and winding. The first William on record may be eighth-century Frenchman William of Gellone. This William reigned as Duke of Toulouse from the late eighth to early ninth centuries, and was canonized as a saint in 1066.
But Liam may not exist if it hadn
't been for one William, Duke of Normandy, also known as William the Conqueror, who is said to have introduced the name to England in the 11th century. Once adopted in England, the name quickly spread throughout Wales (Gwylim or Gwilym), Scotland (Weelum, Uilleam), and Ireland (Ulliam). Plus, numerous variations of William proliferated in Europe, including German Wilhelms, French Guillaumes, Spanish Guillermos, and Dutch Willems.
Liam, a cleverly inspired Irish nickname, is now a name that thousands of children on playgrounds and classrooms answer to today. Almost 20,000 Liams were born in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Social Security Administration. It's the most popular name for boys in this country, and has been since 2017.
Parents on BabyCenter love Liam as well – it
's usually at spot one or two for baby boys on our list. (BabyCenter's ranking is based on data from hundreds of thousands of parents who share their baby
's name with us.)
Variations of this crowd-pleasing name include Lyam, Lyahm, and Lliam. The most common feminine iterations of Liam are Wilma, Wilhelmina, and Billie.
Liam has risen from a handful of birth certificates to top baby name lists through much of the Western world. But that climb took about 200 years, starting around the late 18th century, when Liam first slipped out of Ireland. The nickname spread further to other parts of the world in the 19th century when large numbers of Irish people were driven out of their homeland by hunger during the potato famine, many of whom immigrated to the U.S. and Canada.
Liam first started getting contemporary traction on baby name lists in the late 1980s, but pretty much only in Wales and England, where it eventually cracked the top 10 in 1996.
In the U.S., the name didn't enter the Social Security
's top 1,000 until 1967, but eventually reached to triple- and even double-digit popularity – likely with lots of help from rising film star Liam Neeson.
About twenty years after initial U.S. interest (with pushes from phenomena like boy band One Direction member Liam Payne) the name reached top 5 status in 2013. Then Liam rose to number one, usurping popular biblical names Noah, Ethan, and Jacob, in 2017.
It's been a long way from Tipperary, but Liam has officially made it into the most popular Irish boy
's names club, joining Aiden, Patrick, Ryan, Brian, Kevin, and Sean.
