How popular is the baby name Willibrord in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Willibrord.

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Popularity of the baby name Willibrord


Posts that mention the name Willibrord

What’s up with Walpurga?

bonfire

I’ve never celebrated Walpurgis Night, which seems to be a big bonfire party held across large swaths of Europe every spring (April 30/May 1), but I am curious about the name of the holiday. Where does it come from?

It was named after St. Walpurga, an 8th-century English missionary whose name in Old English would have looked more like “Wealdburg.”

Her name reminds me of Willibrord, and for good reason — the corresponding saints were both Anglo-Saxons who lived right around the same time.

So what does her name mean?

As with Willibrord, there are two elements to Wealdburg.

The first element comes from the Anglo-Saxon word weald, meaning “power,” “authority” or “ruler.” This element can also be seen in Germanic names like Walter and Waldo.

The second comes from the Anglo-Saxon word burg, meaning “fortress,” “castle,” “town,” “city,” or something similar.

Now, Germanic names weren’t constructed so that the meanings of the two elements would form a phrase. So combining these two definitions to create something catchy like “ruler of the fortress” would be taking things a bit too far. Better to leave the definition at “power + fortress” or something like that.

Walpurga has never made the SSA’s list of baby names, but Walburga has — on and off from the 1890s until the 1920s.

Image: Adapted from Valborg 2177 by Bengt Nyman under CC BY 2.0.

Where did the name Wilbrod come from?

Statue of St. Willibrord in Luxembourg
St. Willibrord

A reader named Sam sent me a great question several days ago:

I remember my late great-grandfather very fondly and have been thinking about passing on his name as a middle name for a son. However, there’s one catch: his name was Wilbrod, and I don’t know a thing about the name. I’ve never met any other Wilbrods, and what little I’ve been able to dig up is that it’s the name of a street in Ottawa and a rare but not entirely unheard of first and last name in certain francophone groups (historically) and in East Africa (currently). My great-grandfather was himself Canadian, of predominantly Ojibwe and partly either French or Belgian heritage. I’d love to know a little about the name’s history and meaning, if you have any information about it.

I can see why this one would be hard to research. Not only is it rare, but the historical figure who popularized it goes by a different spelling.

The name Wilbrod can be traced back to St. Willibrord (658-739), an Anglo-Saxon missionary who became the first Bishop of Utrecht in 695. Today he’s considered the patron saint of the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

According to one source, “Wilbrod” is a specifically French form of the name. Other forms include Wilbrord, Wilebrode, Wilibrord, Willbrord, Willebrode and Willibrode.

What does it mean?

Well, like many Germanic names, it contains two elements.

The first element comes from the word willa, meaning “will, wish, desire.” We can see this element in various Anglo-Saxon words, such as:

  • wilboda, meaning “welcome messenger”
  • wildæg, meaning “wished-for day”
  • wilgæst, meaning “welcome guest”
  • wils?ð, meaning “desired journey”
  • willspell, meaning “good tidings”
  • wilðegu, meaning “agreeable food”

We can also identify it in several modern names/surnames, including:

  • William/Wilhelm, a combination of “will, desire” and “helmet, protection”
  • Wilbert, “will, desire” and “bright”
  • Wilfred/Wilfried, “will, desire” and “peace”
  • Willard, “will, desire” and “brave, hardy”
  • Wilmer, “will, desire” and “fame”

The second element in Willibrord is the word brord, meaning “a prick or point, a lance, javelin, the first blade or spire of grass or corn.”

Though it’s tempting to merge the definitions of the two elements into a phrase like “desired lance,” it may be more accurate not to, as compound Germanic names were not always constructed with meaning in mind. Name elements were sometimes simply passed down from one generation to the next, for instance. (The first part of St. Willibrord’s name likely came from the name of his father, Wilgils.)

P.S. Wilbrod Street in the Sandy Hill district of Ottawa was named for one of the sons of former landowner Louis-Théodore Besserer.

Sources:

  • Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
  • Ferguson, Robert. The Teutonic Name-System Applied to the Family Names of France, England, & Germany. London: Williams & Norgate, 1864.
  • Latham, Edward. A Dictionary of Names, Nicknames and Surnames of Persons, Places and Things. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1904.
  • Orel, Vladimir. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Smith, William and Henry Wace. A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines. London: John Murray, 1887.
  • Stevenson, W. H. “The Christian Name William.” Notes and Queries 3 Apr. 1886: 272.
  • Willibrord – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Echternach Statue Willibrord by Palauenc05 under CC BY-SA 4.0.