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Name root

William

A male given name from the Germanic languages popular since the Norman Conquest.

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William at a glance

Origin
Germanic
Root meaning
“will”
Pronunciation (IPA)
/ˈwɪl.i.əm/, /ˈwɪl.jəm/

Etymology

From Middle English William, from Anglo-Norman Willame, from Old High German Willahelm, from Proto-Germanic *Wiljahelmaz (> Latin Gulielmus), from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“will”) + *helmaz (“helmet”), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European roots *welh₁- (“to choose, wish, want”) and *ḱel- (“to cover, conceal, save”) respectively. Cognate with Dutch Willem, German Wilhelm, etc.; cognate borrowings outside of Germanic include Guillaume and Guillermo.

Meaning and etymology from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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FAQ

What does the name William mean?

A male given name from the Germanic languages popular since the Norman Conquest. Its root means "will".

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Mythology and video game character facts from Wikidata (CC0). Name roots from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).