William Hughes may refer to:

• Billy Hughes, the seventh prime minister of Australia
• William Hughes (Senator) (1872–1918), U.S. senator from New Jersey
• William J. Hughes, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey
• William Hughes (professor) taught the geography of the Holy Lands to divinity students at King's College London, circa 1863 (see quote at Geography)
• William Hughes (writer), Democratic writer for the Baltimore Chronicle and Sentinel ^*
• William Hughes (Mr. W. H.), possible dedicee of Shakespeare's Sonnets