Anybody have a DS named William? Or know one well?

[IamnotwhouthinkIam]

So I think I've narrowed it down to my top 2 for DS and William is in the lead as it's also a family name for us (but the relatives are long deceased so there will be no name confusion). I also like its timeless quality and that there are lots of interesting famous namesakes.

But despite it's apparent popularity, I don't personally know any younger William's to ask what they think of their name (apparently according to ONS only about 3 or 4 boys seem to be given the name each year where I live).

So parents/relatives/friends of William's, please help me! Do they like their name? Are there any issues with it? (eg. Do they get teased with "Willy?" Do they hate that there are probably also others at their school/clubs named it?) Are they known as William or do they go by a nickname?

I'm probably over thinking such an apparently popular name, but I'm due in just a couple of weeks now and starting to get panicky that I can't make up my mind (and that I'll be pressured to make a decision asap by relatives once he's here!).

Thanks for any help

BTW I'm sorry for those with William's who've been teased , it seems so stupid a thing when it's such a "normal"/commonplace name

It doesn't matter how common a name is - many names can be teased eg Smellie Ellie, Snotty Lottie etc. And William contains Willi!

I have a 7 year old William. He likes it, and doesn’t like it being shortened.
Nursery and school have tried Will with him but it never stuck.
No other nicknames and no name calling.

I call him Wilbs, but that’s just a little pet name, short for Wilbur which derived from William.

I know a Liam - he's a teen now. Known him since he was 5. Wasnt until he he was 9/10 I found out Liam is short for William. Makes sense.

I'd avoid because of the strong Protestant connotations in Scotland. Might not be an issue where you are though. It is a lovely name.

I know 4 who are 3 and under

I was born in 1990 and there were 7 Williams in my year at school out of maybe 80 kids (50 boys). My brother was at the same school 5 years earlier and also knows at least 4 Will's. It's a mainstream name, no one gets called willy. Many went by surnames to distinguish though and a few got affectionately called derivatives like Wilbur.

My friend has a William. 5 out of the 7 boys at our baby group were called William.

Oh and it makes me laugh that you mention Emily. There were 4 Emily's in that 30 girl group and all got called Em / Emsy which I couldn't stand. You're right on not getting to chose your nickname. My brother has a name we didn't think could be changed and everyone chose the most annoying derivative which made my mum apoplectic.

My son was at school with a couple of Williams and I've encountered a few, usually called, 'Will'. It's a lovely name, as you say it is timeless. Go for it.

My 19yr old DS is William and loves it. Super strong name, easy to spell! He is Will to some, went by Liam for a while by choice. Nicknames are nothing to do with his name, all to do with hobbies etc. Classic, timeless name.

My friend has a 18mo old William. Not shortened. Great name

I have a 16 year old William. He's always been mainly Will but we do interchange, there's two in his school year and he's never had any stick.

It's a brilliant name, it suited him from baby to bloke and can be serious or cool

Massive congratulations on your pregnancy, and go for it with William!

Know a teen William/Will - doesn't appear to have had any issues
Also teach a couple of them, infant school age - again no issues

I know a lot, 8 through to 20s mostly called Will. It’s a nice name

I have a 2 year old William and I call him Bill. His dad calls him Billy which I don't like as much.

The only issue is it’s common and they can get lucky or unlucky with nicknames. Kids don’t give ‘unkind’ nicknames in my experience with William but they do to differentiate them.

All of my boys went through school with numerous Williams in their year, same with their sporting teams. The teachers are politically correct and will say - William C, William B, Will, Will D etc depending on what the parents/child indicate the acceptable name is. Kids can’t be dictated to though and they make up their own nick names, not to be unkind but to distinguish between the plethora of Williams to make life easy for themselves.

Even as adults it’s a common thing. One of my boys who is a young adult has four Williams in their sports team. So the others use Will, Bill, Willow and Willeee (pronounced like that) to differentiate them. Same occurs at school except younger kids are far more imaginative and lack filters and dignity.

DS has a friend named William (6) and he never shortens it and as far as I’m aware hasn’t been teased at all. It’s a lovely name.

My son’s name is pretty difficult to tease about, or so I thought, but a little while ago he was upset as some classmates were replacing the first letter. It made a nonsense word that didn’t mean anything, and unfortunately there’s no way to plan for that, some kids are just mean.

Congratulations! It’s so easy to overthink baby names so good luck!

Thank you so much everyone , I feel reassured that so many people have/like the name William - the few other people I've mentioned it to in real life seem quite "blah" about it, perhaps because it's so commonplace? Also reassured that teasing mostly seems unlikely (and yes I agree it could possibly happen with any name, if they don't find something else to tease about - I've since read on an old thread that an Isabelle was called "is a smell" - how do kids come up with this stuff? I love Isabel!)

I'm sure I am over thinking it, sorry - I think it's the hormones, panic about him being nearly here now and the long awaited first/only baby thing. I even googled William with my surname and there seem to be a fair few other men with the same first name and surname on social media sites - so clearly other parents didn't have this issue with worrying about teasing or the name sounding okay .

While I am hoping he might be the only one in his class, I'm not super worried about popularity itself - all my final list have been top 50 timeless/classic ones, as I wussed out with more adventurous choices because I think DS could have enough to cope with being "different" in other ways (I want to at least get the name thing right because I'm a Solo Mum and he is donor conceived, in a rural area where that's more unusual).

Thanks again everyone for the help and congratulations. I'll try not to post/think about it anymore and just accept I can't plan for every eventuality. I'm 90% sure it will be William now, unless once he's here he responds more to Sam instead!

I named DS William but changed it at 6 weeks because although a lovely name I wanted something more distinctive!

I also worked with a Will who thought his name was a bit plain and preferred his middle name.

Great solid name but runs the risk of being meh

Sorry just saw your last post!

Good luck x

I don’t know any, but I like Will

I teach a few Williams.
One has a NN of Will, the other is always just William and the third’s NN comes from his surname.

I love the name. It’s a classic.

I have a William, which we shortened to Liam. It's a lovely strong name and he loves being Liam "but William officially". We do know a few other Williams - all known as Will, not aware of any of them having any teasing. My hunch is that because it is such a common name, the Willy thing
Is so unoriginal it wouldn't be funny, even to quite young kids.

I've seen your update and realise you may not read this but just wanted to say that you might want to be careful about trying to protect him from all teasing! Children are good at picking up on parental anxiety. Maybe change your focus and try to imagine him as a confident, popular little boy rather than someone who is going to be picked on (before he's even born).
William is a fine name and not at all unusual.

My ds has ab 8yr old William (usually Will) in his class.
My neighbour has a 12yr old William known usually as Billy!