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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Norwegian : variant spelling of Vold (see Voll).
  • English : topographic name for someone who lived on any of the areas of open upland known from Middle English times onwards as wolds (e.g. the Yorkshire Wolds or the Cotswolds). This term derives from Old English wald ‘forest’ (see Wald). After the extensive clearance of forests in England, from before the Norman Conquest onward, the Old English term wald came to denote open uplands (wolds) in Middle English in certain areas of England.

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