English surname from a medieval pet form of William plus diminutive '-ke', meaning 'little Will'.
Wilkes is a patronymic surname meaning "son of Wilk" or "son of Will," ultimately derived from William — itself from the Old High German *Willahelm*, combining *willo* (will, desire) and *helm* (helmet, protection). As a family name, Wilkes attached itself most memorably to John Wilkes (1725–1797), the riotous English radical politician, journalist, and libertine who championed freedom of the press, colonial rights, and parliamentary reform at a time when such positions were genuinely dangerous. His slogan "Wilkes and Liberty" became a rallying cry for reformers on both sides of the Atlantic; American patriots cited him with admiration, and the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania preserves his name in the landscape of the new republic.
In American history, the name is also borne by the Wilkes family of Georgia in Margaret Mitchell's *Gone with the Wind* — Ashley Wilkes being the languid, idealistic figure Scarlett O'Hara cannot stop loving, a man constitutionally unsuited to the brutal world the Civil War revealed. This literary association gives the name a Southern aristocratic tinge, melancholy and graceful. More darkly, John Wilkes Booth carried the surname into notoriety, though the first name carries the weight there rather than the last.
As a given name rather than a surname, Wilkes is quite rare — it belongs to the tradition of transferring family surnames to given names, common in both English and American naming practice. It reads as distinguished without being precious, and it ages well: a Wilkes at five and a Wilkes at fifty carry the same quiet confidence. For families with the name in their lineage, using it as a given name is an act of inheritance and tribute.