Name

Oh, I'll tell you their names, but you know it seems to me they give these ball players now-a-days very peculiar names.
~ William Alexander "Bud" Abbott, Who's on first? (comedy routine performed by Abbott & Costello, c.1938)

My two biggest influences have, coincidentally, been Williams -- William Faulkner and William Shakespeare. Not to seem pompous, but ...
~ Guillermo Arriaga, in Filter Magazine (December 2003). Out of Time: Guillermo Arriaga on 21 Grams

The name of my condition is Cartilage Hair Syndrome Hypoplasia, but you can just call me Billy.
~ Billy Barty

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, "Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here."
~ William James "Count" Basie, in Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie (1985).

[T]he word nick in nickname is cognate with the German word necken, to mock, to quiz, and the English word nag, to tease, provoke.
~ William Lewery (W.L.) Blackley, Word Gossip: A Series of Familiar Essays on Words and Their Peculiarities (1869). Chapter XI: Dialectic Expressions

"I have no name
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). Infant Joy

I am not willing to lose my name of William. As it was taken from me once against my will, I am not willing to part with it again upon any terms.
~ William Wells Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave. Written By Himself (1847). Chapter XIV

When this boy was brought to Doctor Young, his name being William, the same as mine, my mother was ordered to change mine to something else. This, at the time, I thought to be one of the most cruel acts that could be committed upon my rights; and I received several very severe whippings for telling people that my name was William, after orders were given to change it. Though young, I was old enough to place a high appreciation upon my name.
~ William Wells Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave. Written By Himself (1847). Chapter XIII

The earth may ring, from shore to shore,
With echoes of a glorious name,
But he, whose loss our tears deplore,
Has left behind him more than fame.
~ William Cullen Bryant, In Memory of William Leggett (1839).

Uranian Willy The Heavy Metal Kid. Also known as Willy The Rat. He wised up the marks. His metal face moved in a slow smile as he heard the twittering supersonic threats through antennae embedded in his translucent skull.
~ William S. Burroughs, Nova Express (1964). Chinese Laundry

About the year of our Lord 1000 ... surnames began to be taken up in France, and in England about the time of the Conquest, or else a very little before, under King Edward the Confessor, who was all Frenchified ... but the French and wee termed them Surnames, not because they are the names of the sire, or the father, but because they are super added to Christian names as the Spanish called them Renombres, as Renames.
~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine (1605).

[I]t is not easy to search all the causes of alternations of surnames, which in former ages have been very common amongst us, and have so intricated or rather obscured the truth of our pedigrees, that it will be no little labor to deduce many of them truly.
~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine (1605).

This name hath been most common in England since King William the Conquerour, insomuch that upon a festival day in the Court of King Henry the Second, when Sir William Saint-John, and Sir William Fitz-Hamon, especial Officers, had commanded that none but of the name of William should dine in the great Chamber with them, they were accompanied with an hundred and twenty Williams, all knights ...
~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine (1605).

[T]o find out the true original of surnames is full of difficulty.
~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine (1605).

I shall be counted but a name of dignity.
~ William Cartwright, The Ordinary (c. 1635). Act IV, scene iii

To please the ladies: Will is right.
~ William Cartwright, in Comedies, Tragi-comedies, With other Poems (1651). On Mr. Stokes, his Book on the Art of Vaulting

Somewhere there among the stones,
All alike, that mark their bones,
Lies a lad beneath the pine
Who once bore a name like mine, --
~ Willa Sibert Cather, from April Twilights (1903). The Namesake

Illustrious William! Britain's guardian name!
One William sav'd us from a tyrant's stroke;
He, for a sceptre, gain'd heroic fame.
~ William Collins, Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands (1750).

If Jesus was a Jew, how come he has a Mexican first name?
~ Billy Connolly

Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.
~ Bill Cosby, Fatherhood (1986).

Fatherhood is asking your son to make up a name rather than tell anybody who he is.
~ Bill Cosby, Fatherhood (1986).

A thousand names are toss'd into the crowd;
Some whisper'd softly, and some twang'd aloud.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Charity

Some to the fascination of a name,
Surrender judgment hoodwink'd.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book VI. The Winter Walk At Noon

Where once we dwelt our name is heard no more.
~ William Cowper, from Poems (1798). On Receipt Of My Mother's Picture (written in 1790)

My name ... Jose Jimenez
~ Bill Dana (William Szathmary), (character originated in 1959).

It's such a famous name that we need to treat it with respect. I think we have a great story to tell.
~ Willie G. Davidson, The Associated Press (27 April 1999). Harley plans museum

I don't recall your name but you sure were a sucker for a high inside curve.
~ Bill Dickey

I name thee Old Glory!
~ William Driver (on the presentation of a large American flag), (10 August 1831).

But I am Will, and like it.
~ Will Allen Dromgoole, letter in The Writer: A Monthly Magazine for Literary Workers (22 December 1891).

Nothing in a name! Do you believe it?
~ Will Allen Dromgoole, letter in The Writer: A Monthly Magazine for Literary Workers (22 December 1891).

He lives, who dies to win a lasting name.
~ William Drummond (of Hawthornden), from Poems: Amorous, Funerall, Divine, Pastorall, in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals (1616).

Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.
~ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (October 1929). April Sixth, 1928

Nicknames are vulgar. Only common people use them.
~ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (October 1929). April Seventh, 1928

I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat.
~ William ("W.") Mark Felt, in Vanity Fair (July 2005).

Ford has been a part of me since the minute I was born ... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
~ William Clay Ford, Jr., Ford TV Commercial (February 2002)

It's nice to have a nickname like Willy: one doesn't have to grow up.
~ William A. Fowler, Speech at the Nobel Banquet, Stockholm, Sweden (10 December 1983).

For I'm called Little Buttercup -- dear Little Buttercup,
Though I could never tell why,
But still I'm called Buttercup -- poor little Buttercup,
Sweet Little Buttercup I!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore (1878 opera). Act I: I'm called Little Buttercup

Because President Clinton has been a friend for so many years, I feel like it is very difficult after he became President, because I led the Inaugural prayer, and when I stepped down I said, "Mr. President," and I almost said, "Bill," because I'd called him Bill so long. And I feel like calling him Bill again tonight after those warm words of a brother.
~ Billy Graham, in Remarks by the President at Banquet in Honor of Dr. Billy Graham and Mrs. Ruth Graham (2 May 1996).

Whatever you've come here to get
You've come to the wrong place. It
(I mean your name) hurries away
Before you in the trees to escape.
~ William Sydney (W.S.) Graham, The Secret Name

Another of the most common of Welsh personal names was William; which, when that of a father's son, was written Williams and was only the Latin for Gild Helm, or Golden Helmet.
~ William Elliot Griffis, from Welsh Fairy Tales (1921). XI. The Treasure Stone Of The Fairies

We are not much interested in labels but if we were to choose one, we would say we are radical.
~ William H. Grimes, in The Wall Street Journal (2 January 1951). A Newspaper's Philosophy

'A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man.' It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On Nicknames (written in 1818)

Nicknames, for the most part, govern the world.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On Nicknames (written in 1818)

[O]f all eloquence a nickname is the most concise; of all arguments the most unanswerable.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On Nicknames (written in 1818)

My real name's Eleanor, but almost everyone calls me Billie, excepting Basie and Billy Eckstine. To this day they still call me William.
~ Billie Holiday

Really, the most offensive thing is somebody calling me an "old coot."
~ William Woodward "Hootie" Johnson, The Associated Press (Interview; 4 November 2002).

A chrysanthemum by another other name would be easier to spell.
~ William J. Johnston, quoted in Reader's Digest.

I have lived in the land, quoth I, my name is long Will.
~ William Langland, A Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman (or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman; c. 1362).

Jim Baker spells his name with 2 k's because 3 would be too obvious.
~ Bill Maher

My name is Mankiller, and in the old Cherokee Nation, when we lived here in the Southeast, we lived in semi-autonomous villages, and there was someone who watched over the village, who had the title of mankiller. And I'm not sure what you could equate that to, but it was sort of like a soldier or someone who was responsible for the security of the village, and so anyway this one fellow liked the title mankiller so well that he kept it as his name, and that's who we trace our ancestry back to.
~ Wilma Mankiller, Speech at Sweet Briar College (2 April 1993). Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation

Many accounts have been given to the world as to the origin of the name and by whom it was thus designated, but ours were the first visible footsteps, and we the party which named it the saddest and most dreadful name that came to us first from its memories.
~ William Lewis Manly, Death Valley in '49: The Autobiography of a Pioneer (1894). Chapter X: Death Valley

A nickname is the most stinging of all species of satire, because it gives no chance of reply.
~ William Mathews, Words; Their Use and Abuse (1876). Chapter XII. Nicknames

To make a name which will live beyond the hour, you must do something or say something worth being done or said, and which has not been done or said before.
~ William Mathews, Getting on in the World; Or, Hints on Success in Life (1872). VII. Originality in Aims and Methods

When I was in Teheran, Iran (former Persia), I made the acquaintance of a young woman from Los Angeles in the United States. ... Because I was dressed in Western garb, which I found was very practical, she compared me to James Butler Hickok, a.k.a. as Wild Bill Hickok, and from then on she called me Billy. The name stuck wherever I went.
~ ("Billy") Eduard Albert Meier, Free Community of Interests for the Fringe and Spiritual Sciences and Ufological Studies (FIGU) (The Mission, 1995). An Interview with Billy Meier

People would ask me what my name was, and semi-facetiously I would say my name is Name. I thought it was cute and I'd never seen anyone use the name "Name" for a name.
~ Billy Name (nee Billy Linich)

This has given me the greatest trouble and still does: to realize that what things are called is incomparably more important than what they are. The reputation, name, and appearance, the usual measure and weight of a thing, what it counts for -- originally almost always wrong and arbitrary, thrown over things like a dress and altogether foreign to their nature and even to their skin -- all this grows from generation unto generation, merely because people believe in it, until it gradually grows to be part of the thing and turns into its very body: what at first was appearance becomes in the end, almost invariably, the essence and is effective as such!
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882).

Who has not, at one time or another -- sacrificed himself for the sake of his good name?
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1885-86).

Some people call me the Kitchen, some call me the Dining Room -- and some call me the Cafeteria!
~ William ("The Refrigerator") Perry, NBC TV (23 September 1986).

I am "W." Rose because "William" was an asshole.
~ W. Axl Rose, Rolling Stone Magazine (Interview; 2 April 1992).

Mr. Buckley, "Bill" to his friends, does not like to be called by that diminutive, or even the full "William," by strangers. He has taken the position that the spread of first-namism not only is an affront to good manners but also subtracts from the value of a first-name relationship between people who know each other. When he says, "Call me Bill," that is an invitation to greater intimacy, or an acknowledgment of an informal relationship, and should not be presumed by a recent acquaintance or a pushy kid.
~ William L. Safire, in the New York Times Magazine (24 November 1991). On Language; Manhandling the Handlers and Don't Call Her Madam

A deed without a name.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act IV, scene i

A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,
And harsh in sound to thine.
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Act IV, scene v

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act III, scene iii

I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act III, scene ii

Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lov'st me, for my name is 'Will.'
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 136

O villain! thou hast stolen both mine office and my name.
The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.
~ William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors. Act III, scene i

The king's name is a tower of strength.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act V, scene iii

We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act IV, scene iv

What a disgrace it is to me to remember thy name.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act II, scene ii

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene ii

Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,
His honour and the greatness of his name
Shall be.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII. Act V, scene v

Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act III, scene iii

And he says to me, I swear, "Mr. Kirk ... uh, I mean Stratner ... dude ... William ... you just have to check it out for yourself."
~ William Shatner

Down on the farm, I'm no longer William Shatner, actor/author/father, I'm more "Billy Bob Shatner, good ol' boy."
~ William Shatner

I am thankful that my name is obnoxious to no pun.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Egotisms, from my own Sensations

My name is William Tell:
when little oppressions touch me
arrows hidden in my cloak
whisper, "Ready, ready."
~ William Stafford, from My Name Is William Tell: Poems by William Stafford (1992).

Classification or taxonomy is the theory and practice of naming, describing, and classifying organisms.
~ William D. Stansfield, Macmillan: New York NY (1983). The Science of Evolution (1977)

My name is Bill Talman, the most unsuccessful prosecuting attorney in the history of the legal profession.
~ William Talman, American Cancer Society TV Advertisement (September 1968). Antismoking Public Service Announcement

I would rather make my name than inherit it.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians (1857-59). Chapter 26

Snobbishness is vulgar -- the mere words are not: that which we call a Snob, by any other name would still be Snobbish.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Book of Snobs (1848). XVIII. Party-Giving Snobs

I am and always will be an HRH. But out of personal choice I like to be called William because that is my name and I want people to call me William -- for now.
~ Prince William, 21st birthday interview with the Press Association (PA), St James's Palace (21 June 2003).

I was named after my grandfather, and he was always called Andy. I don't like it.
~ Andy Williams

Some men never learns whut a good name dey had 'til dey loses it.
~ Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams

When tears come down, like fallin' rain
You'll toss around, and call my name.
~ Hank Williams, Sr., Your Cheatin' Heart (Song)

I don't like giving names to generations. It's like trying to read the song title on a record that's spinning.
~ Ian Williams

There were seven of us kids and we ran out of m's.
~ James Francis "Jimy" Williams (on the spelling of "Jimy").

Check out that last name -- it's a strong, strong last name.
~ Roland Williams (interviewing teammate Sam Williams), Behind the Shield TV Show (26 November 2004). The Ro Zone

I was born for something braver than
To hang my head and wear a nameless name.
~ William Cross Williamson, It Might Have Been

And there was an old boy sitting on a box car, dressed the way I dress today, and he looked just like a buddy of mine named Willie Wilson. I said, 'There's Willie in a box car,' and that's where it came from.
~ Boxcar Willie (nee Lecil Travis Martin), The Associated Press (1997).

I wonder, what is more dangerous: to hear our name called or to live oblivious to the voice?
~ William H. Willimon, Sermon, Duke University Chapel (19 January 1997).

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.
~ William Wordsworth, from Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series (1821-22). Part III. XXI: Sponsors

We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud
And magnify thy name, Almighty God!
~ William Wordsworth, Ode, Imagination Ne'er Before Content. IV

I resigned myself to this eventuality. After all, it was the musician's name first (he's a lot older than I am, certainly, and perhaps more famous), and ... But then I remembered ... Bill Wyman the Rolling Stone wasn't born Bill Wyman. ... His real name, Stones fans know, is William George Perks.
~ Bill Wyman (on receiving a letter from attorneys for Bill Wyman, the former bassist of the Rolling Stones, to stop using his name), in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (14 November 2002). Will the real Bill Wyman please tune up?

Well, I'm Willie. Cause when we were at school, they used to call me little Willie. I never quite worked that one out, I didn't understand. ... It looked alright to me, you know, and -- the Poor Boys.
~ Bill Wyman (William George Perks) (on the album "Willie and The Poor Boys"), NBC TV (1 August 1985). Late Night with David Letterman