# Will, or Wills? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766 "2011-04-17T22:47:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/22 "2011-04-18T18:15:40Z")
Somebody explain to me why the men change their names when they become king. Has it always been this way? Elizabeth didn’t change her name. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/23 "2011-04-18T18:31:19Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Somebody explain to me why the men change their names when they become king. Has it always been this way? Elizabeth didn’t change her name. They can, they don’t have to. Queen Victoria’s given first name was Alexandrina - although she was always called Victoria and that is how she chose to rule. British royalty tend to have a ton of names to choose from. They don’t tend to be First Middle Last like ordinary humans. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/24 "2011-04-18T18:34:55Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I suppose the Duke of Edinburgh would have an embolism if he lived to see Charles or William choose to be crowned King Phillip. I was wondering that. And, of course, there is still Albert. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/25 "2011-04-18T18:36:04Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Somebody explain to me why the men change their names when they become king. Has it always been this way? Elizabeth didn’t change her name. Correct, she chose not to. David chose to be King Edward as he felt King David was inappropriately biblical for someone who is the head of the Church of England and Albert felt his name sounded too German at a time when the relationship between England and Germany was strained. Then he changed his entire family’s last name from the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the English Windsor, not even the English version of the German name. (Though some of the lesser family did Anglicize Battenberg to Mountbatten at the time and Mountbatten-Windsor is a correct last name for many in the royal family.) TLDR- diplomatic reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/26 "2011-04-21T04:56:08Z")
I like Wills as a nickname for William. It differentiates itself nicely from the more common Will and Bill. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/27 "2011-04-21T11:52:14Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Where will the stag be? Will there be strippers? And what about Will’s/Wills’ moral dilemma? Can he bring himself to tuck pound notes into the stripper’s G-string knowing that every one of them has his grandmother’s picture on it? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766/28 "2011-04-21T13:50:59Z")
I’m in the minority but I like “Wills”. It sounds good and different enough to my ear to be interesting, but not jarring. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-or-wills/578766.md?page=1)