(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 and Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from La Varrenne in Seine-Maritime, France, named with a Gaulish element probably descriptive of alluvial land or sandy soil.
English: topographic name for someone who lived by a game park, or an occupational name for someone employed in one, from Anglo-Norman French warrene or Middle English wareine ‘warren’, ‘piece of land for breeding game’.
Irish: adopted as an Englsih form of Gaelic Ó Murnáin (see Murnane, Warner).
FOREBEARS The surname Warren was brought to North America from England independently by many different bearers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Richard Warren, a London merchant, was one of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. John Warren came to Salem, MA, in 1630 on the Arbella, and was the founder of an influential 18th-century Boston family. Arthur Warren emigrated to Weymouth, MA, before 1638.
