Wold Family History

Norwegian: variant of Vold (see Voll). Compare Wald. English: topographic name for someone who lived on any of the areas of open upland known from Middle English times onward as wolds (e.g. the Yorkshire Wolds or the Cotswolds).

This term derives from Old English wald ‘forest’ (see Wald). After the extensive clearance of forests in England from before the Norman Conquest onward, the Old English term wald came to denote open uplands (wolds) in Middle English in certain areas of England.