Talk:William (name)

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[edit] Bill

Is there a reason for abbreviating the name william to Bill or Robert to Bob ?

Yes, I think the article should answer this question, but I don't know the answer either (I came here to ask). - furrykef (Talk at me) 18:48, 19 September 2006 (UTC)
It's probably from young children's speech. 'b' is easier to pronounce than 'w' or 'r'. Chl 20:09, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cox

"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."

This sounds like hearsay and has little basis at all. It is also totally irrelevant. And isn't more likely that Wilcox comes from an amalgamation of the names William and Cox? The history of Wilkin is also irrelevant. - 08/08/2006

It is accurate. See England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, Bertlett. -- Stbalbach 23:27, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Polish variant

I removed the Polish variant because it's not really a Polish variant but just the German variant used in Poland.

[edit] Belgian name?

Why is 'Guildhelm' referred to as a 'Belgian name'? Belgium is a country with three, clearly distinct, official languages (Dutch, French, and German) and only came into being as a sovereign state in the nineteenth century - after centuries of Habsburg, Austrian, French, and, finally, Dutch rule.

Note, furthermore, that running the name 'Guildhelm' through Google using the 'site:be' command does not produce a single hit. 'Guilhelm' does (84 hits).

I suspect that Guildhelm is simply a variant of French 'Guillaume'.

Right, and if it isn't, then this information has nothing to do with the article. I'll remove it. Chl (talk) 19:14, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wm?

'It is sometimes abbreviated as Wm'.

What is meant here? The name 'Wim' does exist, although I believe it is more popular in Dutch-speaking countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Surinam, and the Dutch Antilles) than in German-speaking countries.

The abbreviation is "Wm", not "Wim", and is a common abbreviation (though rather old-fashioned) for "William" in English-speaking countries, as "Chas." is for Charles. --Saforrest 04:45, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 'Origin' - linguistically flawed

I think it unlikely that 'William' was borrowed into Norman French from Old (High) German. More likely it is derived from Frankish, as is indeed suggested by the article on 'Guillaume' in the French version of Wikipedia.

[edit] Italics?

In the first paragraph, why are Bill and Billy in italics but "Will" and "Willy" not in italics but in quotation marks? Shouldn't all four be presented the same way? ☺Coppertwig (talk) 23:29, 12 April 2008 (UTC)