A few days ago
RY33

Why does the name “William” have an abbreviation? “Wm.”?

There’s no “Rd.” for Richard or “Sn.” for Steven. Why does Willaim have an abbreviation?

Top 3 Answers
A few days ago
beatlesabbyrd86

Favorite Answer

I did a bit of searching, and came upon this:

“..it was quite common to abbreviate common names like William (Wm.) and John (Jn.) as well as many other words commonly repeated in documents and letters. Names were very commonly abbreviated, and not always the same way – this list shows “Charles” written variously as “Cha,” “Chal,” “Chars,” “Cha,” “Chl,” “Chle,””Chles,” and “Chls,” so it’s not as though the abbreviations were always standard. Diminutives of full names often become given names, but not necessarily because of misread abbreviations. I’ve met a few Beckys and Amys whose full names were not Rebecca or Amelia, for instance.”

Hope this helps you!

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5 years ago
?
Usually Theodor, but Theo could also be a name by itself and not short for anything. I personally don’t like the name. It reminds me of the son on the Cosby Show. However, the name Theo is usually an abbreviation for Theodor.
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A few days ago
Tom K
But there are Jn. for John. Thos. for Thomas, Jms for James and many others.

If you ask “Why?” about anything in the English language, the correct answer is probably “Because”.

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