(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.
Short forms: Will, Bill.
Pet forms: Willy, Willie, Billy.
Cognates: Irish: Uilliam. Scottish Gaelic: Uilleam. Welsh: Gwilym. German: Wilhelm. Dutch: Willem. Scandinavian: Vilhelm. French: Guillaume. Spanish: Guilermo. Catalan: Guillem. Portuguese: Guilherme. Italian: Guglielmo. Czech: Vilém. Slovenian: Viljem. Hungarian: Vilmos. Lithuanian: Vilhelmas. Latvian: Vilhelms.
English: nickname for a man with some fancied resemblance to a he-goat (Old English bucc(a)) or a male deer (Old English bucc). Old English Bucc(a) is found as a personal name, as is Old Norse Bukkr. Names such as Walter le Buk (Somerset 1243) are clearly nicknames.
English: topographic name for someone who lived near a prominent beech tree, such as Peter atte Buk (Suffolk 1327), from Middle English buk ‘beech’ (from Old English bōc).
German: from a personal name, a short form of Burckhard (see Burkhart).
North German and Danish: nickname for a fat man, from Middle Low German būk ‘belly’. Compare Bauch.
German: variant of Bock.
German: variant of Puck in the sense ‘defiant’, ‘spiteful’, or ‘stubborn’.
German: topographic name from a field name, Buck ‘hill’.
FOREBEARS Emanuel Buck came from England to Plymouth Colony in the 1640s and in 1647 settled in Wethersfield, CT.
