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[ 2 syll. wal-la-ce, wa-ll-ace ] The boy name Wallace is sometimes used as a girl name. Its pronunciation is WAOLahS KEY. Wallace is an English and Scottish name of Old French origin. From the element 'waleis' meaning foreign, Celtic. The first name is derived from the Scottish surname, which was originally a nickname given by Normans to minority Celtic people, such as Welshmen living around the border of England and Wales known as the Welsh Marches. The given name was first bestowed in Scotland, in honor of the Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace (1272/1276-1305), who was executed by the English for his leading role in the wars of independence for his country. It was later adopted by English speakers from the 19th century. The name is in modern times associated with the absent-minded character of the same name in Nick Park's animated series Wallace and Gromit (1990s). In England, the short form Wally is used as colloquial term for a young cucumber and also for an inept person; the latter use has possibly diminished the popularity of the short form of the name. Uallas (Gaelic and Scottish), Wallie (English), Wallis (English), Walsh (English), Welch (English), and Welsh (English) are variants of Wallace. Other variants of Wallace include the short forms Wal (English) and Wally (English). Wallace is unusual as a baby name for boys. Its usage peaked modestly in 1923 with 0.247% of baby boys being given the name Wallace. It ranked at #69 then. The baby name has since markedly fallen in popularity, and is currently of very light use. Among all boy names in its group, Wallace was nonetheless the most regularly used in 2008. Wallace has in the past century been mostly given to boys. Baby names that sound like Wallace include Wallach, Wallis (English), Wilkie (English), Wilko (Frisian and German), Willis (English), Walsh (English), Welch (English), Wells (English), Welsh (English), Wills (English), and Wilse (English). A famous person named Wallace is Wallace Stevens, Poet, born 2 October 1879 - 2 August 1955, Reading, Pennsylvania. KEY: Pronunciation for Wallace: W as in "we (W.IY)" ; AO as in "ought (AO.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; S as in "sea (S.IY)"   |
