Wallin

Etymology

The old surname writers most often connect Wallin with Walter, treating it as a nickname or pet-form built from Wal- plus a diminutive ending. In some of their cross-references, it is also linked with Wallen and Walling, with the latter showing an added excrescent -g. The sources also note related continental forms such as Dutch and Danish Wallin/Wahlin, so the name may have arisen in more than one language area from similar short forms.

History

In English records, Wallin appears as a medieval and early modern surname form alongside Wallen, Walling, and Wallon. The name is also found in Scandinavian and Dutch contexts, where comparable spellings may have developed independently or through later migration and spelling adaptation. In the United States it is now a comparatively uncommon surname, but it has enough bearers to show continued transmission across generations.

Origin

Regions

Variant spellings

Fun fact

Nineteenth-century surname dictionaries sometimes treated Wallin as just one member of a small family of forms built around the short base Wal-.

Related surnames