The Art of Literary Nomenclature

ORIGIN:
One of those “last names as first names” that were once a quite popular way for a mother’s maiden name to be passed on to her sons, “Walpole” is an old English place name meaning either “pool with a wall” or “pool of the Britons / foreigners”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Wally? Poley?

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Sir Walpole Crawley, the late first Baronet, was Sir Pitt Crawley’s father in Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (published in 1847-48, but set in the 1810s-20s).

Tagged: 1810s, 1820s, 1840s, English, W