Origin and popularity of the name WALLIS

Origin

Wallis : Scottish and English: from Anglo-Norman French Waleis Walais ‘Welshman’ also sometimes ‘Breton’ (from Old English wēalas walas plural of walh wealh originally meaning a ‘Roman citizen’ and referring to the native British population but in Old English this term later came to mean ‘serf unfree person foreigner’ or ‘Welshman’). In western and central England the medieval reference is clearly to Welshmen. In Norfolk and Lincolnshire the reference was probably to Bretons many of whom settled in the eastern counties after the Conquest. Compare Welsh Walsh. The idea that the Scottish surname refers to the Welsh-speaking Britons of Strathclyde is erroneous.

Walliser : Swiss German: habitational name for someone from the Wallis (Valais) region of Switzerland so named from Latin vallis ‘valley’.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 30,948 individuals with the name WALLIS on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name WALLIS