William Moulton

(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 various places with this name, as for example in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, and North Yorkshire. For the most part these were named in Old English as ‘Mū-la's settlement’, from the Old English personal name or byname Mūla ‘mule’ + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’, but in some cases they may have been originally farms where mules were reared or kept. In the case of the Norfolk place name the first element was probably a personal name Mōda, a short form of the various compound names with a first element mōd ‘spirit’, ‘mind’, ‘courage’.