Family name origins & meanings
- English : variant of Walter, representing the normal medieval pronunciation of the name.
- English and German (Rhineland) : topographic name for someone who lived by a stretch of water, Middle English, Low German water.
- Irish : adopted as an English translation of Gaelic Ó Fuartháin (see Foran), being wrongly taken as Ó Fuaruisce ‘son of cold water’.