William · Daily fortune

William is a masculine name of Germanic origin. It comes from Willehelm, a compound of willo ("will, desire") and helm ("helmet, protection"); the familiar gloss "resolute protector" is a paraphrase of those two elements rather than a separate meaning. The name spread through the Normans and became extremely popular in England after William the Conqueror was recognised as the first Norman king in the 11th century. In the United States it has never been outside the top 20 since records began in 1880, and in 2025 it ranked #9 for boys, while its Irish short form Liam ranked #1.

Behind the Name derives William from the Germanic name Willehelm, "will helmet", from the elements willo "will, desire" and helm "helmet, protection". Wikipedia traces the same compound further back to Proto-Germanic *Wiljahelmaz (*wiljô "will, wish, desire" + *helmaz "helm, helmet") and offers "vehement protector" as a rendering. The two sources agree on the elements; "resolute protector", "strong-willed guardian" and similar phrases found in baby-name books are interpretive readings of will + helmet, not independent etymologies.

The first well-known bearer was William of Gellone (755–812), a cousin of Charlemagne later venerated as a saint and remembered in the Chanson de Guillaume. The name became common among the Normans and, after William the Conqueror's victory in 1066, extremely popular in England, where it soon became the most common name alongside other Norman imports such as Robert, Richard, Roger and Henry. It stayed among the most common English names with John, Thomas and Robert. Three further English kings bore the name, as did rulers of Scotland, Sicily, the Netherlands and Prussia; William Wallace and the legendary William Tell carried it into national folklore.

William ranked #9 for boys in the United States in 2025 (Social Security Administration). Behind the Name notes that in the American rankings, kept since 1880, the name has never been out of the top 20, and that its short form Liam has periodically surpassed it; in 2025 Liam was the #1 boys' name in the same SSA file.

English William is /ˈwɪl.jəm/, two syllables with the stress on the first. Most other languages use their own form of the name rather than the English spelling; the forms below are the ones Behind the Name lists, and their pronunciations were not verified in this pass.

William belongs to the small group of royal classics that have been in continuous use in English for nearly a thousand years and still sit near the top of the charts. It reads formal on a certificate and easy in daily use because of its unusually rich set of short forms: Will and Liam feel current, Bill and Billy feel mid-century, Willie feels older still. Parents who want a name with historical depth and no risk of dating typically shortlist it beside Henry, James, Thomas and Charles.

The name's namesakes span rulers, folk heroes and an exceptional run of English-language writers. The bearers below are the ones named in the Behind the Name and Wikipedia entries consulted for this profile.

Names that share William's royal-classic register, its Norman history, or its sound.