WalD

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: dweller in the forest or by the woodland; first attested William de Welde 1121–18 Bury (Sf)

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/wɔːld/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

WalD is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 19K(inferred from the name graph)
  • CACanada≈1 in 61K
  • USUnited States1 in 82K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Germany (inferred from the name graph)

≈4,200 people, est.

Sources
335 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 19K (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from Germanic *wald- 'rule, power' or the related name stem WALTEN

Sources 1

  • Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.

How WalD is read(measured from records)

WalD is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English72%

    dweller in the forest or by the woodland; first attested William de Welde 1121–18 Bury (Sf)

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

    To govern; inherit.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • German14%

    from Germanic *wald- 'rule, power' or the related name stem WALTEN

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

    Toponymic surname from a place/dwelling name.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

    forest, woods

    as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German

    forest; woods; woodland

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

WalD counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where WalD is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany—≈4,200 est.≈1 in 19K—WalD131
US United States—4,0571 in 82K4.9KWalD335
MA Morocco—≈1,500 est.≈1 in 24K—WalD12
CA Canada—≈620 est.≈1 in 61K—WalD98
GB United Kingdom—≈540 est.≈1 in 122K123WalD72
AT Austria—≈270 est.≈1 in 33K—WalD40
NZ New Zealand—≈67 est.≈1 in 73K—WalD16
AG Antigua & Barbuda#182———WalD1

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

WalD is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname17 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Argentina, Brazil

    Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

    Also written Wáld, Wãld, Wàld, Wåld, Wâld

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Wäld

  • Polish surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Czechia, Poland, United States

    Languages: Polish, Czech

    Also written Wàld, Wâļd

  • Swedish surname11 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland

    Languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian

    Also written Wåld, Wāľď, Waald, Wàld, Wâld

  • Indonesian surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Morocco, Indonesia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Wãld, Wàld

  • Swahili surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Wãld

  • Hungarian surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, United States

    Also written Wáld, Wàld

48 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Lillian D. Wald, b. 1867Wald Ábrahám, b. 1902George Wald, b. 1906Jerry Wald, b. 1911Malvin Wald, b. 1917Helen Reddy, b. 1941Robert Wald, b. 1947David Wald, b. 1973Micha Wald, b. 1974
  • Lillian D. Waldb. 1867USAmerican nurse and activist (1867–1940)
  • Wald Ábrahámb. 1902USAmerican mathematician, statistician, and scientist (1902–1950)
  • George Waldb. 1906USAmerican biologist, biochemist, physiologist and Nobel laureate (1906–1997)
  • Jerry Waldb. 1911USAmerican screenwriter and producer (1911–1962)
  • Malvin Waldb. 1917USAmerican screenwriter (1917-2008)
  • Helen Reddyb. 1941AUnot in their usual nameAustralian and American singer and actress (1941–2020)
  • Robert Waldb. 1947USAmerican physicist
  • David Waldb. 1973USAmerican musician, theatre actor, and voice actor
  • Micha Waldb. 1974BEBelgian screenwriter and film director
  • Robert WaldUSAmerican sound engineer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Wald,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 32 sources across 17 countries.

Official registers attesting WalD
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020004.9K#6,384
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020104.1K#8,172
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020204K#7,892
GB United KingdomSurnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register)2002123#29,082
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 6

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name WalD come from?
from Germanic *wald- 'rule, power' or the related name stem WALTEN Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
How do you pronounce WalD?
A machine transcription gives /wɔːld/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name WalD mean?
In English, dweller in the forest or by the woodland; first attested William de Welde 1121–18 Bury (Sf)
What are other forms of the name WalD?
In the etymology graph, Gewalt and Wield are forms of the same name in other languages.
In which country does WalD have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 4.2 thousand people named WalD in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled WalD.
How common is the name WalD?
In the United States, the national register counted 4,057 people named WalD in 2010, about 1 in 82 thousand residents.
How common is WalD compared with other names?
In Antigua & Barbuda, WalD is the 182nd most common surname of 30,187 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about WalD?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/wald

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “WalD” — the 182nd most common surname in Antigua & Barbuda. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how WalD parses inside a full name →