Well, I suppose I asked for it!
1. Research has shown that "Willys, Wyllys and Willis" are all versions of "Will's" or "William's", and go back hundreds of years.
2. I can do no better than quote from a source duplicated it seems on several encylopaedic sites:
Quote:
Willys (pronounced "WILL-iss") was the brand name used by the United States automobile company, Willys-Overland Motors, best known for its production of military and civilian Jeeps, during the twentieth century.
History
In 1908, John North Willys bought the Overland Automotive Division of Standard Wheel Company and in 1912 renamed it Willys-Overland Motor Company. From 1912 to 1918, Willys was the second largest producer of automobiles in the United States behind only the Ford Motor Company....
[1933] But the firm was on the verge of bankruptcy, again. They were forced to sell their Canadian subsidiary, itself in weak financial shape, and they started a massive reorganization. In it, all but the main assembly plant and some smaller factories remained property of Willys-Overland. The rest were sold off to a new holding company that leased some of the properties back to W-O. The company was thus able to ride out the storm.
In 1936 the Willys-Overland Motor Company was reorganized as Willys-Overland Motors.
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So, the answer appears to be that in olde English it was "willis", and in due course as is typical in the English language, the spelling remained but people pronounced JN's surname either way. My apology stands, but I feel both are correct. However I am not sure Reo Motor Car Co, of Lansing, Michigan, ever got across to the public that it was indeed "Reo" as in the Brazilian city or Spanish for river, and not the letters spelled out "R-E-O".
To finish, Henry Ford [in French of course pronounced "For" with a silent "d"] founded a company that today has a plant in Portugal that produces a small automobile, the Ford Ka...as in "car", or the snake in Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book". However certain BBC Top Gear TV programme presenters insisted on calling it the "ca", even though in German and all other languages so far as I know it is "car"! It is a pun for car! Why on Earth do they have to be so stupid?