Boy · Germanic, through Norman French
William
Say it: WIL-yum
Meaning
From Norman French Willelm, from Germanic wil 'will, desire' and helm 'helmet, protection'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Brought to England by the Normans in 1066, it quickly became one of the most common English names and has stayed so.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 4,159,868 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1880, about 1 in 12 boys
- 12,554 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Will, Bill, Willelm
| German | Wilhelm |
|---|---|
| French | Guillaume |
| Italian | Guglielmo |
| Spanish | Guillermo |
| Dutch | Willem |
| Irish | Liam |
| Welsh | Gwilym |
| Polish | Wilhelm |
Famous bearers
- William the Conqueror, king of England
- William Shakespeare, playwright
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Domesday Book (1086) source
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Royal and noble genealogies
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.