[net.nlang] 'B' is for William

colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (05/16/85)

> As a Bill, I feel somewhat qualified to venture a hypothesis (or even aN
> hypothesis):  `w' is pronounced /v/ in many languages, and `v' and `b'
> are not distinguished in many languages. So:
> 
> 	 William -> Will -> /vil/ -> /bil/ -> Bill
> 
> Does this sound plausible or is it mere folk etymology?
> 
> 				William J. Rapaport

Plausible.  I even knew a Czech named "Vilem." It doesn't explain
Robert->Bob, though.

And what about Edward->Ned, Molly->Polly, Meggy->Peggy ... ?
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel