This is an English and Danish-Viking locational surname. Recorded in various spellings including Waldby, Waudby, and Waulby, it originates from the hamlet of Waulby, population in 1955, forty one, near the city of Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The village name has two possible origins. It may have described itself originally as being 'the farm on the wold' or more likely is composed of the original personal name 'Wald' which may have been borne by an Anglo-Saxon of the pre 7th century, or a Viking of a later period, plus the suffix '-by', meaning 'Walds farm or settlement'. First recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Walbi' and later in the 12th century as 'Waldebi', it is easy to see how the later surname developed. Amongst the early examples of the surname recording is that of Gilbert Waudby, the son of Gillelmus Waudby, christened at Middleton on the Wolds, East Yorkshire, on August 24th 1600, Jane Walby, a witness at Staveley, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on September 9th 1605, and Ralph Waudby, whose daughter Hellena, was christened at Brandesburton, East Yorkshire, on September 26th 1676.

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