This is an English surname although one possibly of Danish-Viking pre 9th century origins. It is locational from either or both villages called Walesby in the counties of Lincolnshire and Nottinhamshire. The derivation according to the Oxford English Dictionary of Place Names, has nothing to do with Wales, although we are not sure about this assumption. According to the dictionary the prefix Wales is believed to represent a development of the Viking personal name Valr, plus the word "-bi" meaning a farm. The place name is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Walesbi. In our opinion the place name may have some association with Wales, in the sense that the native "British" were regarded by both the invading Anglo-Saxons and the later Vikings as "foreigners". The word Wales meaning just that, and therefore Walesby as a place name could mean "The farm of the foreigners". This is conjecture but then so is much of surname origins. Without being actually present when a surname was given or taken, one cannot be absolutely certain, seven hundred years later. The first known recording may be that of Osbert de Walesby, a landowner of Lincolnshire. He appears in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, the first year of the reign of King Edward 1st (1272 - 1307).

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