Surname Origins and Meanings

The earliest recorded Wallator surname is said to be Xpofer Walliter (i.e. Christopher Walliter), dated May 7th 1570, a witness at the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London (see http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Woliter).  Interestingly, the spelling "Walliter" was the second most frequent spelling I found in the censuses and spread widely in the UK.  The article referred to above suggests that all the earliest recordings of the surname are from the London area and hints that it may derive from the fact the bearers of the surname lived or worked in some place in medieval London known as "the Wallet" - hence a "Walleter".

A search of the internet also suggests a meaning for the spelling "wallator":
wallator (germ.): bâtisseur de murs, de remparts — builder of walls, ramparts. (http://linguaeterna.com/medlat/show.php?n=18325).

However, I have as yet found no cases of the surname "Wallator" in France or Germany or evidence of a French/German origin for the families.  There are current examples of the name "Walleter" in German though (including a removals company www.walleter.de), but this does not prove it originated there.  It seems likely that the spelling "Wallator", although the most prevalent spelling of the name in the UK during the 19th Century, is in fact a corruption of the original spelling, if there ever was a single spelling.  Given the levels of illiteracy before schooling became commonplace, the name would in the early days have been passed down orally and the spelling guessed by literate transcribers.  It is perhaps even more likely than other surnames, to be interpreted with a variety of spellings when written down.  This might explain the plethora of spellings that have been found.

Some have suggested that the name "Wallator" may have come from "Cadwallader".  This is a further possibility.  Cadwallader was originally a Welsh forename, later used as a surname.  It apparently means "Battle Leader" (https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/CADWALLADER) and records of the name all seem to point to an area on the Welsh border with Shropshire. The fact that more Wallators can be found living in Shropshire than elsewhere during the first half of the 19th Century provides circumstantial evidence for a link.  However, whilst others have suggested the families are linked I am not convinced by the evidence I have seen to-date.  Surnames are very difficult to be precise about because of the varying origins of them and the fact that spellings were not generally fixed prior to the 19th Century.  Surname spellings can easily be corrupted and people do sometimes deliberately alter them, making it very difficult to be absolutely confident that two families, or even a single individual, are the same or related.  Patchy or missing records make the task even more difficult, particularly the further back in time you try to go.  There is also of course the 1570 record of Xpofer Walliter in London to consider which suggests the name existed separately from Cadwallader before the late 1700s when the earliest record is found in Shropshire.

I believe that all the existing variously spelled Wallator families come from a common origin.  They may or may not originate from Cadwalladers.  Maybe DNA research could verify this - something for the future perhaps.