where does the name William come from
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.n fact, 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 [iaÊ·] + [m] in Old Norman-French, quite similar in Old Central French [eaÊ·] + [m] from an early Gallo-Romance form. .