Name

William (name)

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William
William the Conqueror, The Duke of Normandy in the Bayeux Tapestry. The name William became very popular in the English language after the Norman Conquest of 1066 by William the Conqueror.
Pronunciation	English: /ˈwɪljəm/
Gender	Male
Meaning	Vehement protector (Will + helmet (protection))
Region of origin	Germanic
Origin	German
Nicknames	Will, Bill, Billy, Willy, Willie, Liam, Willem, Wim
Related names	Wilhelm, Guillermo, Guillaume
Popularity	Popular names page

Look up William in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

William is a popular given name of old Germanic origin. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. The modern German and Polish equivalent is "Wilhelm." It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." The name's shortened familiar version in English is Bill, Billy, Will or Willie. A common Irish form is Liam. Female forms are Willa, Wilma and Wilhelmina.

Origins

William is from the Norman language Williame (although Norman French was Latin-based and the proper name is Germanic) and is a cognate from the German Wilhelm, and of Germanic origin: wil = "will or desire"; helm; Old English "helm", "helmet, protection"; thus the Old German name Wilhelm and the Old Norse name Vilhjálmr have the same roots. The name William has today been interpreted to mean protector of the kingdom or realm.

English history

The English "William" is taken from the Anglo-Norman language and was transmitted to England after the Norman Conquest in the 11th Century, and soon became the most popular name in England, along with other Norman names such as Robert (the English cognate was Hrēodbēorht), Richard, Roger (the English cognate was Hroðgar), and Hugh (all of Germanic origin, transmitted through the Normans' use of Old French). The name was so popular, in fact, that history records an event in Normandy in 1171 where Henry the Young King held court for Christmas which included 110 knights named "William" - the Williams had gathered in a room and refused to allow any one to eat with them, unless they were named William.

During the Middle Ages the word "cock" was used to describe a self-assured young man (taken after the image of a strutting self-assured rooster). As a result this nickname was applied to a number of names, including William which is where the name Wilcox comes from. The name Wilkin is also of medieval origin taken from the shortened version of William (Will) with the suffix "kin" added.

In the 16th century during the Reformation, Protestants abandoned the usage of Catholic names such as William, instead using Biblical names.

According to the 1990 U.S. Census the name William was the 5th most popular first name with 2.451% of the male population (around three million), and the last name Williams was the 3rd most common last name with 0.699% of the population (around 1,747,500 people).

Name variants

Alternative forms include:

• Wilhelm (German, Polish)
• Willem, Wim, Pim, Jelle (Dutch, Frisian, Low German)
• Wiremu (Maori)
• Willelm (Old English)
• Wellëm (Luxembourgish)
• Gulielmus (Latin)
• Guglielmo (Italian)
• Guillaume (French)
• Guildhelm (Old Dutch)
• Guilhem (Occitan)
• Guillem (Catalan)
• Guillén (Aragonese)
• Guillermo (Spanish)
• Guilherme (Portuguese)
• Guillerme (Galician)
• Gwilym (Welsh)
• Gwilherm (Breton)
• Gugghiermu (Sicilian)
• Gllâome (Norman)
• Illiam (Manx Gaelic)
• Uilleam (Scottish Gaelic)
• Uilliam (Irish Gaelic)
• Liam (Irish Gaelic)
• Uilliam (Albanian)
• Уилиам - Uiliam (Bulgarian)
• װֶעלװֶעל - /ˈvelvel/ (Yiddish)
• Villem, Villu (Estonian)
• Вильгельм - Vil'gel'm (Russian)
• Вільгельм - Vil'gel'm (Ukrainian)
• Vilhelm (Danish, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish)
• Vilhelmo (Esperanto)
• Viliam (Slovak)
• Viljem (Slovene)
• ויליאם - /ˈviljam/ (older propronunciation), /ˈwiljam/ (contemporary) (Hebrew)
• Вилим - Vilim (Serbian, Croatian)
• Vilém (Czech)
• Vilmos (Hungarian)
• Viljams (Latvian)
• Vilius, Viliumas (Lithuanian)
• Viljami, Ville, Vilho, Viljo (Finnish)
• Vilhjálmur (Icelandic)
• Vilhjálmr (Old Norse)
• Vėljams (Samogitian)
• Γουλιέλμος - Gouliélmos (Greek)

References