Wil Surname: Origin, Meaning & Coat of Arms

Search old registers for Wil and you will soon meet Will too. The name is generally explained as “A descendant of Will, a pet form of William (resolution, helmet)”.

Wil and Will

Wil drops the “l” of Will, a simplification that clerks often made. Regional accents shaped spellings long before dictionaries fixed them. Related forms: Willem.

Similar-sounding surnames on Herald Lab: Weil, Wiley and Wille.

Wil coat of arms

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Wil, so the heraldry linked to Will is a starting point, not an automatic right.

For the full story, order the Wil surname pack.