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Updated June 9, 2019

Boy name origins & meanings

  • English : Man from Wales, smooth

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.

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