What was the surname of William Of Normandy?
Many people above have given good answers. I will only add a few things: First, Dan Smith wrote, “He was illegitimate so he did not get a patronymic like Harold Godwinson.” Not quite. He was illegitimate, and he didn’t “get” a patronymic, but it wasn’t *because* he was illigetimate (Dan has committed the logical fallacy known as “false cause”). William was a Norman. Harold was a Saxon. They were two different cultures, with two different naming traditions. Saxons routinely used “patronymic bynames” (patronymic means “father’s name” and byname is any second name which futher idetifies you – nicknames, descriptives, patronymics, locatives, occupational, etc.). Therefore, Harold was known in Saxon tradition as his father’s son: Harold Godwin’s Son. The Normans called him “Harold of Wessex.” Normans did not generally use patronymics. In fact, Normans hardly used bynames at all in the 11th century. They would start to use them in the 12th century, and by the end of that century, those bynam
