Waller

Family name origins & meanings

• English : topographic name for someone living near a wall (in particular, the wall of a city), or an occupational name for a mason who built walls (see Wall).
• English : topographic name for someone who lived by a prominent wall, for example a Roman wall or the wall of a walled city (see Wall 2).
• English : occupational name for someone who boiled sea water to extract the salt, from an agent derivative of Middle English well(en) ‘to boil’.
• English : nickname for a good-humored person, Anglo-Norman French wall(i)er (an agent derivative of Old French galer ‘to make merry’, of Germanic origin).
• South German : nickname from Middle High German wallære ‘pilgrim’.
• Col. John Waller came from England to VA in about 1635. The name was brought to North America by several other bearers independently.