# Wale (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Amharic |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 425 |
| US rank (2010) | 49,461 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 726,460 people |
| Change since 2000 | -13.6% (492 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* English surname of Norman origin, from the Anglo-Norman personal name Wale, of Germanic origin, from the name Walo, a byname meaning "foreigner" (see Wallace). This is also from the related Old English wealh (“Welshman”). * Also as an English surname, from Middle English wale (“goodly, amazing”). * Also as an English surname, from Middle English wale (“riverbank”), from Old English walu (“mark from a blow”). * Also as an English surname, variant of Whale, Wheal, which is from Middle English wel (“happy”) or wele (“pool”). * Also as an English surname, from the noun wheel or a nickname from weevil. * As an Ethiopian surname, from a name derived from Amharic ዋለ (walä, “to spend the day”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Wale 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) | 86% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 6.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 3.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Wale in the United Kingdom.

## People named Wale

- Henry Oscar, British actor (1891-1969)

## Similar surnames

Wall, Whaley, Wahl, Walley, Walla, Wile, Wiley, Willey, Will, Wylie, Woolley, Weil.

## 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.