William Metcalf

(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 (Yorkshire): of uncertain origin, probably from Middle English metecalf ‘food calf’, i.e. a calf being fattened up for eating at the end of the summer. It is thus either an occupational name for a herdsman or slaughterer, or a nickname for a sleek and plump individual, from the same word in a transferred sense. The variants in med- appear early, and suggest that the first element was associated by folk etymology with Middle English mead ‘meadow’, ‘pasture’.