Although the names Willahelm and Guillaume were well known in England before 1066, through Saxon dealings with Guillaume, Duc de Normandie, it was viewed as a "foreign" name. The
Norman Conquest had a dramatic effect on English names. Many if not most
Saxon names, such as
Ethelred, died out under the massive influx of French ones. Since the
Royal Court now rang with names such as Alain, Guy, Reginald and William, they were quickly adopted by the English, the Welsh, and eventually the Irish. Within a generation, the "new" names had become so completely assimilated that they were regarded as homegrown, and variant forms evolved and thrived alongside one another. In Wales, both William and Gwilym became popular, as did the short forms Wil and Gwil, and almost every village had its own Gwilym Williams (the final "s" represented "son of" or "descendant of"). The Norman conquest of Ireland followed a similar pattern to that of England a century earlier. Within a generation, the Irish Uilliam was found alongside William, and the short form of both was Liam. Until the end of the 18th century, Liam was virtually unknown outside Ireland. In the mid-1850s, over a million and a half people left Ireland to escape the catastrophic
great famine and, from then on, Irish names were heard everywhere. Liam as an independent name in England and Wales dates from 1932, but it was mainly confined to the families of Irish descent. By 1955, it was recorded for two boys in every 10,000, a figure it maintained until 1975, when it rose to four per 10,000. ==Late 20th and early 21st centuries==