The origins of the name are not explained, but as a real English name, 'Wilcome' would usually mean 'willow valley', or sometime 'valley of a spring or well'. This implies that it originated as a place-name, suggesting that somewhere in the history of the Cottons was an ancestor who lived in a willow valley, or perhaps even in a place literally called 'Wilcome'. No place named 'Wilcome' is recorded within the Shire, but it is perhaps relevant that there was a place called Willowbottom (which, like 'Wilcome', means 'willow valley'). It might even be conceivable that this was where the first use of the name 'Wilcome' originated among the ancestors of the Cottons.
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