# Bill (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bill/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 5,246 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,474 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 58,854 people |
| Change since 2000 | -18.6% (6,445 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /bɪl/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Hypocorism of William. It is unclear how the initial W became a B; this could have been part of the medieval trend of swapping letters, similar to Dick for Rick.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bill in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 75% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 8.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 6.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 7.0% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bill in the United States and the United Kingdom.

## People named Bill

- Tony Bill, American actor, producer and director
- Leo Bill, British actor

## Similar surnames

Bell, Ball, Beil, Bail, Bull, Billy, Biehl, Boll, Billie, Biel, Baillie, Bilyeu.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.