(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: occupational name for a cook, a seller of cooked meats, or a keeper of an eating house, from Old English cōc (Latin coquus). There has been some confusion with Cocke.
Irish and Scottish: usually identical in origin with the English name, but in some cases a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cúg ‘son of Hugo’ (see McCook).
In North America Cook has absorbed examples of cognate and semantically equivalent names from other languages, such as German and Jewish Koch.
Erroneous translation of French Lécuyer (see Lecuyer).
FOREBEARS Francis Cooke (died 1663) and his eldest son John were passengers on the Mayflower in 1621; they were joined two years later by Francis's wife and other children. In the words of William Bradford, when he died he had ‘lived to see his children's children have children’.
