NameCensus.

UK surname

Wallace

A surname of Scottish origin meaning "foreigner" or "Celt," derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, meaning "Welshman."

In the 1881 census there were 20,491 people recorded with the Wallace surname, ranking it #182 among surnames in the records. By 2016, the modern count was 34,022, ranked #152, up from #182 in 1881.

The strongest historical links point to Govan Combination, London parishes and Edinburgh. In the modern distribution records, the strongest local clusters include Hartlepool, Parkhead West and Barrowfield and Machars South.

Across the surname records, the highest recorded count for Wallace is 34,063 in 2014. Compared with 1881, the name has grown by 66.0%.

1881 census count

20,491

Ranked #182

Modern count

34,022

2016, ranked #152

Peak year

2014

34,063 bearers

Map years

9

1851 to 2016

Key insights

  • Wallace had 20,491 recorded bearers in 1881, making it the #182 surname in that year.
  • The latest modern count shown here is 34,022 in 2016, ranked #152.
  • Within the historical census years, the highest count was 26,259 in 1901.
  • The contemporary neighbourhood profile most associated with the surname is Established but Challenged.

Wallace surname distribution map

The map shows where the Wallace surname is concentrated in each census or modern distribution year. Darker areas mean a stronger local concentration.

Distribution map

Wallace surname density by area, 1881 census.

Loading map
Lower densityMedium densityHigh density

Timeline

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Wallace over time

The table below tracks recorded surname counts and rank from the 19th-century census years through the modern adult-register period.

Year Period Count Rank
1851 historical 12,463 #198
1861 historical 13,267 #187
1881 historical 20,491 #182
1891 historical 22,441 #169
1901 historical 26,259 #168
1911 historical 15,064 #325
1997 modern 31,495 #159
1998 modern 32,663 #161
1999 modern 32,919 #160
2000 modern 32,818 #160
2001 modern 31,925 #160
2002 modern 32,674 #160
2003 modern 31,920 #160
2004 modern 31,911 #160
2005 modern 31,745 #158
2006 modern 31,750 #158
2007 modern 32,074 #157
2008 modern 32,311 #158
2009 modern 33,197 #158
2010 modern 33,877 #159
2011 modern 33,343 #158
2012 modern 33,072 #156
2013 modern 33,744 #157
2014 modern 34,063 #156
2015 modern 33,823 #156
2016 modern 34,022 #152

Geography

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Where Wallaces are most common

Historical parish links are strongest around Govan Combination, London parishes, Edinburgh, Dundee, Liff, Benvie and Invergowry and Glasgow. These are the places where the surname stands out most clearly in the older records.

The modern local-area list points to Hartlepool, Parkhead West and Barrowfield, Machars South, City Centre East and Longside and Rattray. Treat these as concentration signals, not proof that every family line began there.

Some modern areas include a three-digit suffix, such as Leeds 110. The suffix is a small-area code, so it stays in the table while the prose uses the plain place name.

Top historical parishes

Rank Parish Area
1 Govan Combination Lanark
2 London parishes London 3
3 Edinburgh Edinburgh
4 Dundee, Liff, Benvie and Invergowry Forfar
5 Glasgow Lanark

Top modern areas

Rank Area District
1 Hartlepool 002 Hartlepool
2 Parkhead West and Barrowfield Glasgow City
3 Machars South Dumfries and Galloway
4 City Centre East Glasgow City
5 Longside and Rattray Aberdeenshire

Forenames

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First names often paired with Wallace

These lists show first names that appear often with the Wallace surname in historical and recent records.

Modern profile

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Neighbourhood profile for Wallace

Modern surname records can be compared with neighbourhood classifications. For Wallace, this points to the kinds of places where the surname is most concentrated today.

These neighbourhood labels describe areas, not individual people. They are useful because surnames often cluster through family history, migration, housing patterns and local work. A surname can be strongest in one type of neighbourhood even when people with that name live across the country.

The UK classification gives the national picture. The London classification is more specific to the capital, where housing, age profile, tenure and population mix can look quite different from the rest of the UK.

UK neighbourhood type

UK Output Area Classification

Supergroup

Semi- and Un-Skilled Workforce

Group

Established but Challenged

Nationally, the Wallace surname is most associated with neighbourhoods classed as Established but Challenged, within Semi- and Un-Skilled Workforce. This does not mean every Wallace household fits that profile, but it gives a useful signal about where the modern surname distribution is strongest.

Read profile summary

Group profile

Many households in these neighbourhoods comprise separated or divorced single parents with dependent children. Residents are typically born in the UK, and these neighbourhoods have relatively few members of ethnic minorities. The prevalence of children, their parents and those at or above normal retirement age, suggests neighbourhood structures may be long-established. Levels of unpaid care are high, and long-term disability is more common than in the Supergroup as a whole. Use of the social rented sector is common, often in terraced houses. Levels of overcrowding are above the Supergroup average. Unemployment is high, while those in work are employed in elementary occupations such as caring, leisure and customer services. Many residents have low level qualifications. Neighbourhood concentrations of this Group are found in the South Wales Valleys, Belfast, Londonderry and the Central Lowlands of Scotland.

Wider pattern

Living in terraced or semi-detached houses, residents of these neighbourhoods typically lack high levels of education and work in elementary or routine service occupations. Unemployment is above average. Residents are predominantly born in the UK, and residents are also predominantly from ethnic minorities. Social (but not private sector) rented sector housing is common. This Supergroup is found throughout the UK’s conurbations and industrial regions but is also an integral part of smaller towns.

London neighbourhood type

London Output Area Classification

Supergroup

The Greater London Mix

Group

Social Rented Sector Professional Support Workers

Within London, Wallace is most associated with areas classed as Social Rented Sector Professional Support Workers, part of The Greater London Mix. This gives the surname a London-specific profile rather than forcing the capital into the same pattern as the rest of the country.

Read profile summary

Group profile

Mainly located in Inner London, these neighbourhoods retain a diverse employment structure, with some concentration in associated professional and technical occupations rather than skilled trades or construction. Social renting is more common and levels of homeownership are low. Many residents identify as Black. There is a lower than average rate of marriage or civil partnership, few that are very old (85 or over) and higher than average incidence of disability.

Wider London pattern

A Supergroup embodying London's diversity in many respects, apart from low numbers of residents identifying as of Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani or Other (non-Chinese) Asian ethnicity. There is lower than average prevalence of families with dependent children, while there are above average occurrences of never-married individuals and single-person households. The age distribution is skewed towards younger, single residents and couples without children, with many individuals identifying as of mixed or multiple ethnicity. Social rented or private rented housing is slightly more prevalent than average, and many residents live in flats. Individuals typically work in professional and associated roles in public administration, education or health rather than in elementary occupations in agriculture, energy, water, construction or manufacturing. Incidence of students is slightly below average. Individuals declaring no religion are more prevalent than average and non-use of English at home is below average.

Healthy neighbourhoods

Access to healthy assets and hazards

Wallace is most concentrated in decile 1 for access to healthy assets and hazards. This places the surname towards the less healthy end of the index.

Lower deciles point towards weaker access to healthy assets or stronger exposure to local hazards. Higher deciles point towards stronger access and fewer hazards.

1
Lower access Higher access

Neighbourhood deprivation

Index of Multiple Deprivation

Wallace falls in decile 1 for neighbourhood deprivation. This puts the surname towards the more deprived end of the index.

Decile 1 represents the more deprived end of the scale. Decile 10 represents the less deprived end.

1
More deprived Less deprived

Broadband speed

Fixed broadband download speed

The modern neighbourhood pattern for Wallace is most associated with a typical fixed broadband download band of 30-40 mbit/s.

The scale below places that band in context, from slower local download bands through to faster ones.

6
Slower band Faster band

Area snapshot

Ethnic group estimate

Most common ethnic group estimate
White - British

This describes the area pattern most associated with Wallace, not the ethnicity of every person with the surname.

Meaning and origin of Wallace

The surname Wallace is of Scottish origin, derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, which means "foreigner" or "stranger". This name was initially given to someone who came from Wales or had some connection to the Welsh people. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to the 12th century in Scotland.

The Wallace surname is closely associated with Sir William Wallace, the famous Scottish knight and landowner who played a significant role in the Wars of Scottish Independence against the English in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He was born around 1270 in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, and became a prominent figure in the resistance against King Edward I of England's attempts to subjugate Scotland.

One of the earliest known references to the Wallace surname can be found in the Ragman Rolls of 1296, which recorded the names of Scottish landowners and nobles who swore fealty to Edward I. Among them was Richerde Walays, a landowner from Riccarton, Ayrshire.

In the 14th century, the Wallace surname was also associated with the family of Adam Wallang or Wallace, a Scottish landowner who held lands in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. Some records from this period mention a John Wallace, who served as a witness to several charters granted by King Robert II of Scotland in the late 14th century.

Another notable figure with the Wallace surname was William Wallace, a Scottish mathematician and philosopher who lived from 1768 to 1843. He is best known for his work on the theory of energy and his contributions to the development of the concept of the watt, which is named after his friend James Watt.

In the literary world, the Wallace surname is associated with Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist, explorer, and co-discoverer of the theory of evolution through natural selection alongside Charles Darwin. He was born in 1823 and died in 1913, and his extensive travels and research in Southeast Asia and the Amazon Basin made significant contributions to the field of biogeography and evolutionary biology.

The Wallace surname has also been prominent in the realm of politics. Henry A. Wallace was an American politician and agronomist who served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941 to 1945. He was born in 1888 and died in 1965.

Sourced from namecensus.com.

1881 census detail

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Wallace families in the 1881 census

These tables use 1881 census entries for people recorded with the Wallace surname. Use the location tables for concentration, then the name and occupation tables for the people behind the surname.

Top counties

Total is the county count. Frequency and index adjust for local population size, so they are better concentration signals. Lanarkshire leads with 2,636 Wallaces recorded in 1881 and an index of 4.07x.

County Total Index
Lanarkshire 2,636 4.07x
Ayrshire 1,372 9.16x
Middlesex 1,345 0.67x
Lancashire 1,280 0.54x
Midlothian 1,068 3.98x
Fife 1,053 8.89x
Durham 981 1.65x
Yorkshire 925 0.47x
Northumberland 768 2.58x
Angus 735 3.97x
Renfrewshire 725 4.68x
Surrey 642 0.66x
Aberdeenshire 582 3.14x
Cumberland 387 2.25x
Kent 356 0.52x
Dunbartonshire 290 5.39x
Dumfriesshire 283 6.40x
Essex 235 0.60x
Cheshire 234 0.53x
Wigtownshire 224 8.43x
Warwickshire 216 0.43x
Perthshire 206 2.29x
Hampshire 185 0.45x
Staffordshire 185 0.27x
Gloucestershire 184 0.47x
West Lothian 173 5.74x
Stirlingshire 172 2.33x
Hertfordshire 160 1.16x
Devon 157 0.38x
Kirkcudbrightshire 143 4.94x
Suffolk 134 0.55x
Leicestershire 119 0.54x
Argyllshire 112 2.01x
Worcestershire 112 0.43x
Nottinghamshire 110 0.41x
Glamorgan 109 0.31x
Orkney 107 4.86x
Sussex 107 0.32x
Roxburghshire 104 2.87x
Berkshire 97 0.65x
Monmouthshire 94 0.65x
Derbyshire 93 0.30x
Norfolk 84 0.27x
East Lothian 82 3.09x
Somerset 72 0.22x
Caithness 70 2.56x
Buteshire 68 5.61x
Clackmannanshire 65 3.93x
Cornwall 60 0.26x
Westmorland 58 1.32x
Berwickshire 55 2.27x
Northamptonshire 50 0.27x
Selkirkshire 49 2.71x
Banffshire 46 1.11x
Buckinghamshire 45 0.37x
Lincolnshire 41 0.13x
Wiltshire 41 0.23x
Isle of Man 40 1.08x
Nairnshire 39 6.39x
Royal Navy 36 1.51x
Kincardineshire 33 1.35x
Shropshire 27 0.16x
Peeblesshire 26 2.76x
Ross-shire 25 0.46x
Rutland 25 1.70x
Cambridgeshire 23 0.18x
Kinross-shire 20 3.95x
Oxfordshire 17 0.14x
Dorset 15 0.11x
Herefordshire 14 0.17x
Inverness-shire 14 0.23x
Channel Islands 12 0.20x
Anglesey 10 0.28x
Brecknockshire 9 0.22x
Bedfordshire 8 0.08x
Pembrokeshire 8 0.13x
Montgomeryshire 5 0.11x
Denbighshire 4 0.05x
Flintshire 3 0.06x
Merionethshire 3 0.08x
Morayshire 3 0.10x
Caernarfonshire 2 0.02x
Huntingdonshire 2 0.05x
Carmarthenshire 1 0.01x
Shetland 1 0.05x

Top districts and towns

Districts give a more local view than counties. Total shows raw records, while frequency and index show local concentration. Govan in Lanarkshire leads with 808 Wallaces recorded in 1881 and an index of 5.05x.

Place Total Index
Govan 808 5.05x
Barony 704 4.30x
Glasgow 416 3.62x
Edinburgh St Cuthberts 406 3.76x
Dundee 247 3.57x
Kilmarnock 229 12.85x
Liverpool 196 1.36x
Abbey 182 7.69x
Islington London 156 0.80x
South Leith 151 5.01x
Lambeth 144 0.83x
Bothwell 117 6.67x
Paisley High Church 105 8.51x
Kensington London 103 0.93x
Dundonald 102 18.47x
Old Monkland 102 3.97x
Everton 101 1.33x
St Marylebone London 98 0.92x
Liff Benvie 96 3.41x
Kirkdale 91 2.28x
Aberdeen St Nicholas 83 2.39x
Dysart 80 10.03x
East Greenock 80 5.46x
Camberwell 76 0.59x
Gateshead 76 1.71x
Toxteth Park 75 0.93x
West Greenock 75 2.69x
Aberdeen Old Machar 74 1.91x
St Pancras London 74 0.46x
Bishopwearmouth 72 1.41x
Leeds 71 0.63x
Aston 70 0.50x
Kirkintilloch 70 9.58x
Cupar 67 13.01x
Arbroath 65 10.58x
Galston 65 15.87x
Manchester 65 0.61x
St George Hanover 62 2.37x
Muirkirk 61 17.35x
Peterhead 59 6.02x
Ardrossan 58 11.19x
Westoe 58 1.72x
Ayr 57 8.07x
Cruden 57 23.89x
Hedworth Monkton Jarrow 56 2.17x
Newington 56 0.76x
West Ham 56 0.64x
Birmingham 55 0.33x
Campbeltown 55 8.19x
Falkland 55 29.52x
Birkenhead 54 1.53x
Elswick 54 2.27x
Nottingham St Mary 54 0.77x
Old Deer 54 15.38x
Bermondsey 53 0.89x
Dunfermline 53 2.91x
West Derby 53 0.76x
North Leith 52 4.19x
St Vigeans 52 5.20x
Stanhope 52 8.46x
Newcastle On Tyne St 51 3.30x
Whitehaven 51 5.55x
Abbotshall 50 11.30x
Preston 50 0.79x
Mile End Old Town 49 1.55x
New Kilpatrick 49 9.58x
Bradford 48 1.00x
Dunnet 48 43.58x
New Monkland 48 2.51x
Croydon 47 0.87x
Lady 47 72.09x
Paddington London 47 0.64x
Stranton 47 2.35x
Bethnal Green London 45 0.52x
Maybole 45 9.87x
Newcastle On Tyne All Sts 45 2.53x
Tynemouth 45 2.82x
Berwick Upon Tweed 44 6.98x
Hamilton 44 2.44x
St Andrews 44 8.16x
Markinch 42 10.45x
Old Kilpatrick 42 6.61x
Sheffield 42 0.67x
Kilrenny 41 18.71x
West Calder 41 7.76x

Top female names

These are the female first names most often recorded with the Wallace surname in 1881. Names are not merged, so initials, variant spellings and transcription quirks can appear as separate rows.

Name Count
Mary 705
Elizabeth 381
Sarah 298
Jane 257
Margaret 238
Ann 194
Annie 157
Ellen 150
Emma 123
Eliza 103
Alice 100
Hannah 99
Emily 94
Catherine 91
Isabella 85
Martha 57
Louisa 54
Agnes 48
Harriet 48
Edith 47
Maria 46
Kate 45
Fanny 44
Anne 43
Charlotte 42
Caroline 41
Susan 40
Ada 37
Frances 37
Jessie 37
Eleanor 33
Florence 32
Harriett 30
Clara 26
Julia 25
Bridget 24
Helen 24
Rose 23
Esther 22
Rebecca 19
Sophia 19
Amy 18
Janet 18
Lucy 18
Minnie 18
Elizth. 17
Matilda 17
Selina 17
Susannah 15
Margt. 14

Top male names

These are the male first names most often recorded with the Wallace surname in 1881. Names are not merged, so initials, variant spellings and transcription quirks can appear as separate rows.

Name Count
William 754
John 654
James 397
Thomas 335
George 296
Robert 230
Henry 177
Joseph 158
Charles 149
Edward 81
Frederick 81
Samuel 80
Arthur 79
Alfred 76
Richard 72
David 59
Alexander 55
Walter 54
Harry 44
Wm. 39
Albert 35
Frank 34
Michael 27
Patrick 25
Andrew 24
Hugh 24
Herbert 23
Ernest 21
Daniel 20
Peter 20
Edwin 17
Stephen 17
Matthew 16
Thos. 16
Francis 15
Benjamin 14
Archibald 13
Fred 13
Jas. 13
Geo. 12
Jno. 11
Martin 11
Christopher 10
Robt. 10
Willie 9
Fredk. 8
Mathew 8
Percy 8
Ralph 8
J. 7

Top occupations

Occupational titles are kept as recorded and later transcribed, so related jobs, spelling variants and mistakes stay separate. Scholar was the census term for a child in education. That means the other rows often tell you more about adult work in Wallace households.

FAQ

Wallace surname: questions and answers

How common was the Wallace surname in 1881?

In 1881, 20,491 people were recorded with the Wallace surname. That placed it at #182 in the surname rankings for that year.

How common is the Wallace surname today?

The latest modern count shown here is 34,022 in 2016. That gives Wallace a modern rank of #152.

What does the Wallace surname mean?

A surname of Scottish origin meaning "foreigner" or "Celt," derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, meaning "Welshman."

What does the Wallace map show?

The map shows local surname concentration for the selected year. Darker areas have a stronger concentration of Wallace bearers relative to the surrounding population.

What records is this surname page based on?

The historical counts come from census surname records. The modern counts and neighbourhood summaries come from later surname distribution records. Counts are recorded bearers in those records, not a live estimate of everyone with the name today.