I am just curious?

Question

People whose names begin with "william" are called "bill". For eg. Billl Gates name is actually William Henry Gates, Bill Clinton is actually William Jefferson Clinton or Bill Cosby is William Henry Cosby etc. Is there any particular reason why they are all called "BILL"

Answer 1

If they wanted to, they would have been called Will but that was theyre choice. Why dont you call them up and ask them?

Answer 2

Centuries ago, it used to be common for close friends and family to change the initial letter of the shortened form of someone's name. For example, "Richard", (which used to be pronounced "Rickard"), had "Rick" and "d**k". "Robert" had "Rob", "Nob", "Dob", and of course "Bob". The practice has died out over the last 100-200 years, but as you've noticed, a few have survived.

According to the report, back in the days of Old and Middle English, everything was written by hand; "it was therefore common and easier to use agreed-upon abbreviations." An example of an abbreviation was "Ric." for "Richard". The abbreviations led to diminutives, such as "Rick".

Rhyming nicknames were fairly common in the 12th and 13th centuries, such as "Hick" and "d**k" from "Rick". "d**k and Hick were among the earliest of the rhyming nicknames, first appearing in writing around 1220. Other rhyming nicknames include Polly from Molly, Bob from Rob (from Robert), Bill from Will (from William); and Hodge from Roger."