# Waddell (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/waddell/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 21,301 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,691 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 14,494 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.0% (20,885 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Various origins: * A variant of the Scottish surname Weddle. * An English topographic surname for someone who lived at the hill where woad grew, from Old English wād (“woad”) + hyll (“hill”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Waddell in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 81% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 15% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Waddell in the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

## People named Waddell

- Justine Waddell, British actress
- Rube Waddell, American baseball player (1876-1914)
- Laurence Waddell, British explorer (1854-1938)

## Similar surnames

Waddle, Wadley, Woodell, Wooddell, Whitley, Woodall, Wheatley, Whatley, Whitlow, Whittle, Woodley, Weddle.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.