Family name origins & meanings
- English (now chiefly Lancashire) : from an unattested Old English personal name, Wilding, a derivative of Old English wilde ‘wild’, ‘savage’. It is also possible that it may be from a topographical term derived from the same vocabulary word. Compare Wild, but early forms with prepositions are not found.
- German : patronymic from Wilto, a short form of a Germanic personal name beginning with wild ‘wild’.