Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • English : topographic name for someone who lived by a stone-built wall, e.g. one used to fortify a town or to keep back the encroachment of the sea (Old English w(e)all, from Latin vallum ‘rampart’, ‘palisade’).
  • Northern English : topographic name for someone who lived by a spring or stream, northern Middle English wall(e) (Old English (Mercian) wæll(a); compare Well).
  • Irish : re-Anglicized form of de Bhál, a Gaelicized form of de Valle, the name of a Norman family established in Munster and Connacht.
  • German : topographic name for someone who lived by a defensive wall, Middle High German wal.
  • German : variant of Wahl 2.
  • German : from a short form of the personal name Walther.
  • Swedish : ornamental name from Swedish vall ‘grassy bank’, ‘pasture’, ‘grazing ground’, or in some cases a habitational name from a place named with this element.