What does the name William mean?

Q: What does the name William mean?

William means "Will, desire + helmet, protection — traditionally 'resolute protector'". It is a boy's name of Germanic origin.

William

William means Will, desire + helmet, protection — traditionally 'resolute protector'.

Gender	boy
Origin	Germanic
Language	English
Starts with	W

Names with a similar meaning

Names that share a word with “Will, desire + helmet, protection — traditionally 'resolute protector'”. Meanings are the common reading rather than a ruling — the same name is often glossed differently by different sources.

Alexander — From Ancient Greek Aléxandros — 'to defend' + 'man' — traditionally 'defender of man'
Insha — Wish, will of God
Jose — God will add, popular Kerala Latin Christian name
Ichchhasingh — Warrior of will and desire
Trisha — Desire, wish
Esha — Desire, wish, Goddess Parvati

More boys' names of Germanic origin

Henry — From Frankish Haimrik, from Proto-Germanic Haimarīks

Where this comes from

William has no entry in the classical Sanskrit dictionary we check against, which is common for modern and non-Sanskrit names. Its meaning comes from our compiled name corpus, the least-sourced dataset on this site — we say so plainly on Sources & methodology rather than implying an authority we cannot name.