Will a William be called Willy?

[3babesfull]

This is not a tongue twister! I am expecting a boy next week (!) and my DH and I are rubbish at boys names. I think that I like William but my DH says that I have to consider that people will call him Willy. Is this a common problem? We really don't have any other suitable ideas!

I don't know any Williams called Willy and I know lots of Williams.

Tis a very lovely, classic, timeless name. I think it's a great choice

No - i know lots of Williams that are either Will or Billy.

I know a few, most of them are William or Will and one (aged 70odd) is Willy

No. No-one will call him Willy. It'll be Billy if people want to shorten it to something cute with a 'y' on the end. William is a lovely name, it's DS's middle name .

I know several, and they are all either known as William or Will/Wills which I think is really cute

My William is usually Will or William. He prefers his full name, he's only 3 though!

Thank you for all the posts. It has reassured me. We are finding this naming business rather tricky - obviously have too many children!

I dunno, will'e?

Sorry (at least I waited till you'd had lots of sensible answers!)

The only William I know that is called Willy is a non-UK 60+ man. Willy doesn't have the same meaning in his country. My DCs think it hilarious that he's called Willy though.

The only boy I know is nicknamed Wills. I've never heard him being teased or called Willy but I expect another child has probably called him it at some point.

I only know Will, Wills and Billys. Except that one Will gets called Willy by his (rather gorgeous) wife

MY DS is a William, everyoen calls him Will.

I know a William who is Wills.

Liam is a short form of William too, so i guess he could get Will, Wills, Billy or Liam as alternative shortenings to Willy.

My cousin is william and has always been known as Will.

Yes, if anyone wants to tease him or thinks the word willy is SO FUNNY. (not me I'm an adult)

We wrote limericks with our friend Will but changed name to Willy just for the rhyming potential. Great fun.

My ds is 6 and he has informed me that the William in his class does get called Willy, but at that age it is almost inevitable...

Lots of names get silly nicknames though.

I think the name William is probably more prone to teasing (Willy) as some other names, especially amongst silly schoolchildren.

I'm actually a little surprised that people on here warn against names like Nicholas (knickerless), Pavlo (Pavlova) and Gabries (Gay-boy) whereas William is a much more obvious teasing target imo.

The other thing about Will is that it is a verb (I will) and a noun(a will), which I find a little confusing (e.g. Will, will you ...).

Not to put you off because I love the name but my cousin was referred to as 'Little Willy' by our grandparents until he was old enough to protest, then they reverted to William; but I always called him Will.

I know someone called Willie, but he's Scottish and so gets called Wullie! as in OOr Wullie.

Realises probably only Scots will know what I am on about!

I do Saltire.

I like Willem better than William.

There is of course Will. I. Am.

Marniesmummy - :o
Saltire, I know who you mean!
Rachel 1970 - Our surname is also a Christian name so that bothers me abit too.
Will *** come here. I dunno, will he??

Perhaps I am thinking too deeply about this!

My DH is William. Known by me exclusively as William (we're terribly formal :) ) - he's become 'Will' at work (people just take it upon themselves to shorten it) and most of his family and only his father calls him 'Willy'.

And, actually, DH's father (who calls him Willy) is Scottish so it's as Saltire says.

My nephew is William and yes, he has been called Willy at school a few times. It hasn't seemed to bother him much, but I agree the name lends itself to the Willy association.

If you love it, I'd still use it. Lots of other names have the potential to get teased with some imagination.