ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1401 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1401 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 24 Dec 1998 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for information on the origin of the surname , especially in an Irish context. In particular you asked whether it could be an offshoot of or . The surname has at least three sources. First, it is from the Continental Germanic masculine given name or the related Old English given name . Both became in Middle English, as in the names 1176 and 1297. The name probably owed its popularity to the tale of Wade, originally a sea-giant, that forms part of the cultural background of the coastal North Sea and Baltic tribes (and hence of the Anglo-Saxons). Of all the old heroes only Weland the Smith lived longer in English popular memory. [1] The other main source is the Old English word or 'ford'. (Here {ae} stands for the -ligature formed by squeezing together so that the and the share a common vertical centre-line.) It also became in Middle English, as in the names 1189 and 1327, which indicate that Ordmar and Richard each lived by a ford. [1] Even in Ireland these are the main sources of the surname , which is found there as early as the 13th century. In the Oriel counties is found as a variant of ; both are Anglicizations of Irish 'son of Wat', being a common medieval English pet form of . [2] is yet another variant Anglicization of the same name. All of these are relatively modern: some actual English spellings from about 1600 are , , and . [3] I hope that this adequately answers your question; if not, please write us again. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek ===== References: [1] Reaney, P.H., & R.M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995); s.n. Wade. [2] MacLysaght, Edward. The Surnames of Ireland (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985); s.nn. Wade, (Mac) Quaid. [Note that MacLysaght's derivation of Anglo-Irish is wrong in several details and should be ignored.] [3] Woulfe, Patrick. Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames (Baltimore: Geneological Publishing Co., Inc., 1993 [1923]); s.n. Mac Uaid.