Walhedd

Recorded as Wallhead, Whalhead, Walhedd, Walehead, Whalhad, Wallhad and possibly others, this is apparently an English surname, but may also be associated with Scotland. It is one of a group of locational surnames which has Wall as part of the name, or on its own. These include Wall itself, which is at least for some nameholders is after a Wall village in Westmoreland, Wallhead, now a locality, but apparently a former village near Carlisle in Cumbria, and Wallsend, an unlovely place near Newcastle. All share an association with the former Roman Wall, popularly built by Hadrian, although in fact he was only one of three Roman Emperors who over successive centuries between the 2nd and the 4th centuries a.d. built their own version. Of course not all names with Wall in them have anything to do with the Roman Wall, but this one almost certainly does. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. In this case the name is reasonably well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London, with only Wallhild and Wallhouse being recorded in Cumbria although these may be associated. The London recordings include Thomas Wallhead at St Johns Hackney, on September 17th 1568, and George Whalhad who married Annie Tew at St James Clerkenwell on July 5th 1637.