William (name)

William the Conqueror The name William became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror.
Pronunciation	/ˈwɪljəm/
Gender	Male
Word/name	Germanic languages
Meaning	Will + helmet (protection)
Region of origin	Northern Europe
Nickname(s)	Will, Bill, Billy, Willie, Willy, Bilson, Liam, Willem, Wim
Related names	Wilhelm, Guillermo, Guillaume, Guglielmo, Guilherme, Gwilym
Popularity	see popular names

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. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." The name's shortened familiar version in English is Bill, Billy, Will, Willy, or Willie. A common Irish form is Liam. Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Willamette, Wilma and .

William comes ultimately from the given name Wilhelm (cf. Old German Wilhelm > German Wilhelm and Old Norse Vilhjálmr). The Anglo-Saxon form should be *Wilhelm as well (although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to William the Conqueror as Willelm). That is a compound of two distinct elements : wil = "will or desire"; helm; Old English helm "helmet, protection"; > English helm "knight's large helmet".

In fact, the form William is from the Old Norman form Williame, because the English language should have retained helm. The development to -iam is the result of the diphthongation [iaʷ] + [m] in Old Norman-French, quite similar in Old Central French [eaʷ] + [m] from an early Gallo-Romance form WILLELMU. This development can be followed in the different versions of the name in the Wace's Roman de Rou.

The spelling and phonetics Wi- [wi] is a characteristic trait of the Northern French dialects, but the pronunciation changed in Norman from [wi] to [vi] in the 12th century (cf. the Norman surnames Villon and Villamaux "little William"), unlike the Central French and Southern Norman that turned the Germanic Wi- into Gui- [gwi] > [gi]. The Modern French spelling is Guillaume. .