Explore the Family Name Wilms

The meaning of Wilms

North German and Dutch: patronymic from a shortened form of the personal name Wilhelm. Some characteristic forenames: German Uli, Hermann, Heinz, Ernst, Friedrich, Manfred, Ralf, Udo, Willi.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Wilms in the United States?

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Wilms has shown a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The surname was ranked 28,194th in 2000 and fell to 28,967th in 2010, reflecting a decline of 2.74%. Despite this drop in rank, the actual count of individuals with the Wilms surname increased slightly from 799 in 2000 to 820 in 2010, an increase of 2.63%. However, as a proportion per 100k people, the occurrence of this surname decreased by 6.67% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#28,194	#28,967	-2.74%
Count	799	820	2.63%
Proportion per 100k	0.3	0.28	-6.67%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Wilms

The ethnicity distribution for the surname Wilms also saw some changes from 2000 to 2010 according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. The majority of individuals with this surname identified as White, making up 90.74% in 2000 and increasing slightly to 90.98% in 2010. Individuals identifying as Black or having two or more races also held the Wilms surname, with a small increase in the former group and a decrease in the latter. Interestingly, there were no reported instances of this surname among Asian/Pacific Islanders or American Indians and Alaskan Natives in 2000, but by 2010, these groups made up 0.61% and 0.73% respectively. On the other hand, the percentage of those identifying as Hispanic and carrying this surname decreased by 19.44% over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
White	90.74%	90.98%	0.26%
Black	3.13%	3.41%	8.95%
Hispanic	2.88%	2.32%	-19.44%
Two or More Races	2.25%	1.95%	-13.33%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.73%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.61%	0%