WILDES
Wildes is a surname of English origin. It is derived from the Middle English word wilde, meaning wild or untamed.
The earliest lexical source for the name is Old English, pre 7th century, the word wilde which denoted an undisciplined or out of control person. In medieval usage it also described a person whose temperament was high spirited or overly boisterous. Alternatively, the name was adopted as a descriptive locative for those dwelling near a patch of wild forest land or a large area of uncultivated ground, sometimes called a weald, which was a common grazing area.
The first recorded spelling of the family name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where an Ulricus Wilde is listed in the county of Lincolnshire during the reign of King William I (1066-1087).
In subsequent medieval records the surname appears in several variant spellings. For example, William le Wilde is recorded in the 1177 Pipe Rolls of Leicestershire, Henry le Wylde in the Court Rolls of Essex in 1236, and William de Wilde in the Pipe Rolls of Sussex in 1200. These entries show that the name was in use amongst landholders and local gentry.
During the Middle Ages and the Elizabethan era the surname of this type was popular among landowners and people of lofty rank, and was often employed to denote a person who was wild, impulsive or daring. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was commonly given to children as a symbol of strength, courage and independence.
Over the centuries a number of orthographic variants have been recorded, including Wild, Wilde, Wildes, Whilde, Wylde, Wyldes, Weald, Wield, Weild, Weld, Welds and Wyeld. These forms reflect the lack of fixed spelling rules in early modern England.
In contemporary Britain the surname is most frequently found in Northern England, especially in the cities of Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool. It remains a recognised surname throughout the United Kingdom, though it is not among the most common.
Among English-speaking countries it is an uncommon name in the United States, and is also present in Canada, mainly in the province of Ontario, where many bearers are descendants of Irish immigrants. In European countries other than Britain the surname is rare, though it can be found in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal, often as an anglicised form of German surnames such as Wilde or Wilder.
The surname Wildes thus retains a strong symbolic connection to untamed nature and to qualities of daring and independence, a heritage that traces back to its earliest recorded usage in the late 11th century and its continued presence in a variety of orthographic and geographic forms.
Typical given names associated with the Wildes surname
Male
- Anthony
- David
- James
- John
- Joseph
- Marc
- Martin
- Matthew
- Patrick
- Paul
- Simon
- Stephen
- Terence
Female
- Caroline
- Jessica
- June
- Karen
- Kathleen
- Katrina
- Lesley
- Margaret
- Michelle
- Nicola
- Pamela
- Rita
- Sonia
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Wildes in...
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There are approximately 113 people named Wildes in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around two in a million people in Britain are named Wildes.
