The Weddell Name

According to Burke's Peerage the Weddell name is locational in origin associated with the English meaning "dweller at Wada's hill". However, many surnames have more than one meaning and origin. I had always thought that Weddell was Scottish and if you look in phone books there are lots of Weddells in Scotland. The meaning here would probably be something like "Wedding in the dell".

However, names can have many spellings eg Wedle, Weddel, Wedell, Weddle. This suggests local variations and useage by different countries. Registrars used to write names on documents rather than the individuals themselves - in part because people could not read. This meant that they wrote the name as they heard it or as they thought it should be spelt. So, they often wrote a different spelling to that which the person originally held and so a new variation was born. Consequently this can make tracing your ancestors difficult.

The name may also derive from the parish of "Wee Dale", which is around the village of Stow, Midlothian, south-east of Edinburgh.

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