Wade

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  • Origin: English
  • Meaning: “to wade.”
  • Gender: masculine
  • Pron: WADE

The name is a modern English form of the Anglo-Saxon male name, Wada which is derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb wadan (to go), spawning the modern English verb “to wade.” Several individuals with this as a first name are recorded in the Doomsday Book. It spun off the patronymic surname of the same meaning. It went out of use in Anglo-Norman England but was reintroduced in the 19th-century, possibly used in honor of a family surname.

It is the name of a legendary figure in Germanic folklore, the father of Wayland. The Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, makes mention of him and Wade’s Tale is alluded to by Chaucer in Troilus & Criseyde.

In its Old Norse incarnation of Vadi or Vaði, he is made mention of in the Þiðrekssaga and the Poetic Edda.

It is currently the 345th most popular male name in the United States (2022).

Other forms include:

  • Wada (Anglo-Saxon)
  • Wado (Anglo-Saxon)
  • Vade (French)
  • Wate (Middle High German)
  • Vaði (Old Norse; Icelandic)
  • Vadi (Scandinavian)

Sources

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