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Forgotten Wolves of Wilkinaland
A New Etymology Hypothesis for the Wilkinson Surname (and Variants) in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free …
After the wolf do wild men follow …
There hangs a wolf by the western door,
And o’er it an eagle hovers …
Go forth like a wolf on thy way …
A gray wolf had they within their hall …
… it is well if a howling wolf
Thou hearest under the ash …
The word of the race of wolves …
Often a wolf in a son there is.
—The Poetic Edda, passim
Man må hyle med de ulve man er I blandt.
(One must howl with the wolves one is among.)
—Danish proverb
If you are reading this, and your last name begins with “Wilk” and you derived your surname from someone of English, Irish, or Scottish descent, you almost certainly have an inaccurate understanding of both the meaning and source of your surname. Whatever your genetic lineage may be, the linguistic taproot of the surname you carry, in my opinion at any rate, is most likely the ancient Slavonic word “wilk,” which means “wolf,” and came to the British Isles and Ireland among Frisians and Danes during both the Anglo-Saxon migration and Viking invasion eras. It is essentially a linguistic artifact that remained in use as a given name, long after its meaning was forgotten, from the assimilation of the Polabian Slavic tribe of the Wilte or Wylte/Weleti (or Wilzi) into the Danish and Frisian populations some fifteen hundred years ago.
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A New Etymology Hypothesis for the Wilkinson Surname (and Variants) in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free …
After the wolf do wild men follow …
There hangs a wolf by the western door,
And o’er it an eagle hovers …
Go forth like a wolf on thy way …
A gray wolf had they within their hall …
… it is well if a howling wolf
Thou hearest under the ash …
The word of the race of wolves …
Often a wolf in a son there is.
—The Poetic Edda, passim
Man må hyle med de ulve man er I blandt.
(One must howl with the wolves one is among.)
—Danish proverb
If you are reading this, and your last name begins with “Wilk” and you derived your surname from someone of English, Irish, or Scottish descent, you almost certainly have an inaccurate understanding of both the meaning and source of your surname. Whatever your genetic lineage may be, the linguistic taproot of the surname you carry, in my opinion at any rate, is most likely the ancient Slavonic word “wilk,” which means “wolf,” and came to the British Isles and Ireland among Frisians and Danes during both the Anglo-Saxon migration and Viking invasion eras. It is essentially a linguistic artifact that remained in use as a given name, long after its meaning was forgotten, from the assimilation of the Polabian Slavic tribe of the Wilte or Wylte/Weleti (or Wilzi) into the Danish and Frisian populations some fifteen hundred years ago.
ORDER A COPY NOW! READ MORE