About William
The surname William is derived from the given name William, which originated from the Germanic elements "wil" meaning "desire" and "helm" meaning "helmet" or "protection." As a surname, William is likely to have been used to denote a descendant of someone named William or as a patronymic surname indicating "son of William."
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The surname William is a unique entry in our records. Discover more about its distribution and characteristics:
Below is the ethnic distribution of the surname William based on recent US Census records. This is a brief glimpse into the diverse backgrounds of people carrying this surname.
Ranking information for the surname William is not currently available.
Here's how to represent William in Braille, each pattern of raised dots corresponds to a letter in the name.
The image below shows how you can spell William using American Sign Language (ASL). In sign language, each hand shape corresponds to a specific a letter of the name.