William Holton

(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: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called. The final syllable represents Old English tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. The first element has a wide variety of possible origins. In the case of three examples in Lincolnshire it is Old English hōh ‘spur of a hill’; for places in Oxfordshire and Somerset it is Old English halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’; for one in Dorset it may be Old English holh ‘hollow’, ‘depression’ or holt ‘small wood’; for a further pair in Suffolk it may be hola, genitive plural of holh ‘hollow’, but more probably a personal name Hōla.