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 [ 2 syll. wal-ter, wa-lt-er ] The boy name Walter is pronounced as WAOLTer KEY. Walter is primarily used in English, French, German, and Scandinavian, and its language of origin is Germanic. The name is from 'waldhar' (army ruler, folk ruler) which is itself of the elements 'wald' (to rule) and 'heri' (army, warrior). The Normans introduced it into England in the 11th century, replacing the form Wealdhere (Old English). The original pronuncation of the name Walter with a silent 'l' gave rise to various forms with a droppped 'l'. The name was borne by the famous German lyric poet Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230), the English explorer and writer Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), and the prolific Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). The name Walter is widely used; it has 41 variations that are used in both English and other languages. Vladimir (used in Russian and Slavic as well), Wallie, and Watson are English variations of Walter. Other English variants include the short forms Wally, Walt, and Wat, and the pet forms Watkin and Watt. Variations of Walter used in other languages include the Scottish Bhaltair, the Scottish Bhàtair, the Russian Dima, the Russian Dimka, the French Gauther, the French Gauthier, the French Gautier, the Spanish Gualberto, the Spanish Gualterio, the Italian and Spanish Gualtiero, the Spanish Gutierre, the Welsh Gwallter, the Polish Landislaus, the Lithuanian Vacys, the Latvian and Scandinavian Valter, the Latvian Valters, the Czech Valtr, the Finnish Valtteri, the Lithuanian Vanda, the Lithuanian Vandele, the Czech Vladko, the Russian Volya, the Russian Vova, the Russian Vovka, the Dutch, German, Scandinavian, and Lithuanian Waldemar, the German Walli, the German Walther, the German Waltili, the Czech Waltr, the Dutch and German Wolter, the Frisian Wout, and the Dutch Wouter. The short form Weit (Dutch) is another foreign variant. Walter is a classic favorite. Currently it is still a fairly popular baby name for boys, though to a lesser extent than it was in the past. Its usage peaked in 1901 with 1.487% of baby boys being named Walter. It ranked at #12 then. The baby name has since steeply slipped in popularity, and is now of occasional use. In 2008, its usage was only 0.035% and its ranking #393, but it was nevertheless the most frequently used among all boy names in its group. The name Walter has been mostly given to boys, though it has also been used as a girl name in the past century. In 1939, the name Walter was given to 144 times more boys than girls. Baby names that sound like Walter include the German Walther, the Dutch and German Wolter, and the Czech Waltr. Details of famous persons named Walter: KEY: Pronunciation for Walter: W as in "we (W.IY)" ; AO as in "ought (AO.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; T as in "tea (T.IY)" ; ER as in "hurt (HH.ER.T)"   |
