William Boggs

(male) Probably the most successful of all the Old French names of Germanic origin that were introduced to England by the Normans. It is derived from Germanic wil ‘will, desire’ + helm ‘helmet, protection’. The fact that it was borne by the Conqueror himself does not seem to have inhibited its favour with the ‘conquered’ population: in the first century after the Conquest it was the commonest male name of all, and not only among the Normans. In the later Middle Ages it was overtaken by John, but continued to run second to that name until the 20th century, when the picture became more fragmented.

English: nickname from Middle English boggish ‘boastful’, ‘haughty’ (a word of unknown origin, perhaps akin to Germanic bag and bug, with the literal meaning ‘swollen’, ‘puffed up’). The name (in the forms Boge(y)s, Boga(y)s) is found in the 12th century in Yorkshire and East Anglia, and also around Bordeaux, which had trading links with East Anglia.