Wilhelm

English

Alternative forms

• Wilham

Etymology

Borrowed from German Wilhelm. Doublet of William.

Proper noun

Wilhelm (plural Wilhelms)

1. A male given name from German, equivalent to English William.
   • 1872 December, Edward E[verett] Hale, “Ups and Downs”, in Old and New, volume VI, number 6, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, […], chapter XXVI, page 689:

     As it happened, also, the particular Friedrichs and Wilhelms whom he meant to see and confer with were out of town, or had moved their habitats, so that he could not easily find them.

   • 1983, William R[omeyn] Everdell, The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicans, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 250:

     The dour Friedrich Wilhelm I, never out of uniform, accumulating tax income from a dozen different unconstitutional sources, takes time out from drilling his grenadiers to smash an inefficient postillion over the head with his cane. The sleepless Friedrich der Grosse, an atheist Calvin, rises at 6 a.m. to write the day’s orders to his bureaucrats, a shining example to the world of “enlightened despotism.” Even the feckless Friedrich Wilhelm III, defeated by a French revolutionary army, appoints a minister to tell him “Your majesty must do from above what the French have done from below.” […] When the king contemplated (God forbid) his abdication on the issue, Bismarck threw himself into the breach, accepted the office of Chancellor, defied the parliament, and collected the tax, just as the Friedrichs and Wilhelms had done before the French Revolution interrupted the course of progress.

   • 2001, James Howard Kunstler, The City in Mind: Meditations on the Urban Condition, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 116:

     The king’s palace, abode of all the Friedrichs and Wilhelms, had stood there, too, vacated after World War One, discreetly ignored by Hitler, bombed by the Allies in 1945, and finally demolished by the communists.

   • 2013, Reut Yael Paz, “Jews, Universities and International Law”, in A Gateway between a Distant God and a Cruel World: The Contribution of Jewish German-Speaking Scholars to International Law (The Erik Castrén Institute Monographs on International Law and Human Rights; 16), Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, section 3 (Jewish Legal Denkstil/Denkkollektiv as Gateways in German Law Faculties), subsection 2 (Friedrich Julius Stahl: The ‘Paul’ of the 19th Century), pages 105–106:

     Eventually it [the law faculty] chose Friedrich Julius Stahl (1802–1861) – born Joel Golson (or Jolson). […] [Abraham] Uhlfelder’s activities were also efficient in assuring Joel’s (and other Jews’) admission to the renowned Protestant school, the Wilhelm Gymnasium.⁹⁶ It was there that Joel became acquainted with Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer – the Bannerträger des Neuhumanismus – and with the philosopher and [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe’s friend Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. Joel also developed a special relationship with Friedrich Wilhelm Tiersch during his Gymnasium years. […] Clearly, his choice of a new name shows what it must have felt like to be a Joel surrounded by so many Friedrichs and Wilhelms.

2. A surname from German.

Related terms

• Wilhelmstrasse

Afrikaans

Etymology

From German Wilhelm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vəlˈɦɛləm/

Proper noun

Wilhelm

1. a male given name

German

Etymology

From Old High German Willahelm from Proto-Germanic *Wiljahelmaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪlˌhɛlm/ (standard)
• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪ.lɛlm/, /ˈvɪ.lɛm/ (variants in common speech)

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Wilhelm

1. a male given name from Old High German, feminine equivalent Wilhelmina, Wilhelmine, or Minna, equivalent to English William; diminutive forms Willi, Willy

Descendants

• Armenian: Վիլհելմ (Vilhelm)
• → Danish: Vilhelm
• ⇒ Esperanto: Vilhelmo
• → Faroese: Vilhelmur
• → Finnish: Wilhelm
• → Latvian: Vilhelms
• → Lithuanian: Vilhelmas
• → Norwegian: Vilhelm
• → Polish: Wilhelm
• → Romanian: Vilhelm
• Serbo-Croatian:
  • Cyrillic script: Вилим
  • Latin script: Vilim
• → Swedish: Vilhelm, Wilhelm
  • → Finnish: Vilhelmi

Proper noun

Wilhelm m or f (proper noun, surname, masculine genitive Wilhelms or (with an article) Wilhelm, feminine genitive Wilhelm, plural Wilhelms)

1. a surname originating as a patronymic

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Wilhelm, from Old High German Willahelm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvil.xɛlm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ilxɛlm
• Syllabification: Wil‧helm

Proper noun

Wilhelm m pers (female equivalent Wilhelmina)

1. a male given name, equivalent to English William

Declension

Declension of Wilhelm

	singular	plural
nominative	Wilhelm	Wilhelmowie
genitive	Wilhelma	Wilhelmów
dative	Wilhelmowi	Wilhelmom
accusative	Wilhelma	Wilhelmów
instrumental	Wilhelmem	Wilhelmami
locative	Wilhelmie	Wilhelmach
vocative	Wilhelmie	Wilhelmowie

Further reading

• Wilhelm in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Wilhelm c (genitive Wilhelms)

1. a male given name, the spelling origin of Vilhelm

Interjection

Wilhelm

1. The letter "W" (double-u) in the Swedish spelling alphabet

   Synonyms: (variants:) dubbel-v, dubbel-Viktor

References

• [1] Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, →ISBN: 21 343 males with the given name Wilhelm (compared to 23 532 named Vilhelm) living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with the frequency peak in the 2000s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.