The wakefield Surname
wakefield Name Meaning and History
English: habitational name from the city of Wakefield in West
Yorkshire, and probably also from a place of the same name in
Northamptonshire. Both are named from an Old English wacu
‘vigil’, ‘festival’ (a derivative of wac(i)an ‘to watch or
wake’) + feld ‘pasture’, ‘open country’, i.e. a patch of open
land where a fair was held.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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