Walding - Name

This name, with variant forms Welding, Weild, Wolde, Walde, Walder etc., is of Anglo-Saxon origin, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "W(e)ald", (Old High German "wald"), meaning a forest, and was originally given as a topographical name to a dweller in or near a forest. William de Welde was recorded in the 1121, "Feudal Documents from the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds", Suffolk. One, Adam Waldere, witness, appears in the 1226 "Fine Court Rolls of Essex", and a Henry Wolding in the 1275 "Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire". Toponymics formed by the addition of -er to topographical terms were particularly common in Sussex, Surrey and Essex from the 13th Century; hence, "Walder(e)". The suffix "ing" is from the Old English "ing(as)" meaning "people of" or "dweller(s) at"; hence, "Walding". On June 1st 1701, Mary Walding, an infant, was christened in Holy Trinity in the Minories, London, and on December 12th 1858, Treherne Frederick Walding was christened in St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger Walding, which was dated 1193, "The Pipe Rolls of Worcestershire", during the reign of King Richard 1, "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.