Surname Origin

The Wallace Surname


Meaning
foreigner, Welshman
Type
Descriptive (origin)
Root
Old French waleis
Chiefly
Ayrshire and the south-west

Wallace and Welsh are the same word. Anglo-Norman waleis meant a Celtic Briton — in the Scottish south-west it usually marked someone from the old Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde rather than from Wales.

The irony is durable: Scotland’s most famous patriot carried a surname that means ‘the foreigner’.

Bestow the name a title it never had

An honorific Lord or Lady certificate in the Wallace name, hand-finished and sealed, with a square metre of Scottish woodland dedicated alongside it. A novelty, magnificently done — and a good deal more fun than a family tree.

Choose a Package The Peerage Chart