Why do names have meaning even though they’re never used conversationally for that meaning?

Question

Example: the name William apparently means [“resolute protector,”](http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/boy/william) but we never would say of someone who protects resolutely that he’s a william.

In: Culture

Answer 1

Typically they are words from other languages, or from older versions of our language, so they had meaning in their original context but don’t in our time and place.