Bill

See also: bill and bíll

English

Etymology

Hypocorism of William. It is unclear how the initial W became a B; this could have been part of the medieval trend of swapping letters, similar to Dick for Rick.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪl/, [bɪɫ], enPR: bîl

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

Proper noun

Bill (plural Bills)

1. A diminutive of the male given name William.
   • 1974, John le Carré, Tinker. Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Simon&Schuster, published 2002, →ISBN, page 7:

     "My other name's Bill," he said. "I was christened Bill but Mr Thursgood calls me William." / "Bill, eh. The unpaid Bill. Anyone ever call you that?" / "No, sir." / "Good name, anyway." / "Yes, sir." / "Known a lot of Bills. They've all been good 'uns."

   • 1998, Nick Hornby, About A Boy, Victor Gollancz, published 1998, →ISBN, page 208:

     One of his neighbours opposite, a nice old guy with a stoop and a horrible little Yorkshire terrier, called him Bill - always had done and presumably always would, right up till the day he died. It actually irritated Will, who was not, he felt, by any stretch of the imagination, a Bill. Bill wouldn't smoke spliffs and listen to Nirvana. So why had he allowed this misapprehension to continue? Why hadn't he just said, four years ago, "Actually my name is Will"?

   • 2024 August 26, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s personal attacks aren’t just who he is. They’re his strategy”, in CNN‎:

     Her tone shift involved former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton lampooning their fellow ex-president as a figure of ridicule. Then Harris closed the trap with a line in her convention speech: “Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences … of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

2. (rare) A diminutive of the male given name Bilal.
   • 2025 October 28, Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein, “Judge rules LA’s top federal prosecutor was illegally appointed”, in POLITICO‎:

     Bill Essayli, Trump’s pick in April to temporarily lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, should have departed the post by July 31 under a 120-day limit imposed by federal law, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright concluded.

3. A surname.
4. (British, slang) A nickname for the British constabulary. Often called "The Bill" or "Old Bill"

Derived terms

• Bill Williams River
• Billary
• Billy

Related terms

• Will

Translations

male given name

Arabic: بِيل m (bīl), بِيل m (bil) Armenian: Բիլ (hy) (Bil) Bulgarian: Бил m (Bil) Chinese: Mandarin: 比爾 / 比尔 (zh) (Bǐ'ěr) Dutch: Bill (nl) m Faroese: Bill m Georgian: ბილ (bil) Greek: Μπιλ (el) m (Bil) Hindi: बिल (hi) (bil) Hungarian: Vili (hu) Japanese: ビル (ja) (Biru) Korean: 빌 (ko) (Bil) Maori: Piri Persian: بیل (fa) (bil) Polish: Bill (pl) m Portuguese: Bill m Russian: Билл (ru) m (Bill) Spanish: Guille (es) Ukrainian: Білл m (Bill)

References

• Peter Burke (1997). Varieties of Cultural History. Cornell University Press. p. 51.
• Israel, David (2015): The Origins of Nicknames

Further reading

• Bill on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Bill (given name) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Bill (surname) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Azerbaijani

Proper noun

Bill (definite accusative Billi, plural Billər)

1. a transliteration of the English male given name Bill

Portuguese

Proper noun

Bill m

1. a male given name from English, equivalent to English Bill

Swedish

Etymology

From English Bill. First recorded as a Swedish given name in 1895.

Proper noun

Bill c (genitive Bills)

1. a male given name
   • 1994, Maria Gripe, Egna världar, →ISBN, page 272:

     —Vem är Bill, mamma?
     Jag väntade mig inget svar, men mamma skrattade:
     —Vet du inte det? Jo, det kommer från farmor. När pappa var liten brukade hon på skoj kalla honom för Bill...Lille Bill...Vilde Bill...Det tog han efter sen och kallade sig ofta Bill. Fast för min del sa jag alltid Birger.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)