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'Surnames of Scotland'
Black, George F.
(Edinburgh: Birlinn,
1993)
Waddel. Waddell. Waddle, Weddel. Weddell. Weddle Woddell. Weddal. Veddel. Weddale. Wooddell.Wydall from Wedale. the old name of the parish of Stow in Midlothian. Scotland. The earliest known bearer of the name is Adam de Wedale, "an outlaw of the King of Scots land", who appears in 1204. (Bain, Vol. I, page 342).
'New Dictionary of American Family Names'
by Elsdon C. Smith, Harper
<& Row Publishers
page 534
Waddell, Waddil, Waddle, Waddles (Scot.. Eng.): Dweller in the valley where woad grew; one who came from the parish of Waddel (valley where woad grows) (now the parish is named Stow: located in Midlothian. Scotland), in Midlothian; one who came from W^adley (Wada's wood or meadow), in Berkshire. Three meanings have been found for Wada: [1] Wada or Wad may be a pet form of Waldtheof, which means variously - power, serf. foreign, thief f\ew Dictionary of American Family Names). [2] Wada or Wad could also be a variant of woad. which was a plant that produced a vibrant indigo blue dye which was popular during the Middle Ages (New Dictionary of American Family Names, Surnames of Scotland, and A Dictionary of Surnames}. [?] Lastly, a reference was found that mentioned Wada was the name of a legendary sea-giant (A Dictionary of Surnames}.
'A Dictionary of Surnames*
by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges:
Waddell (Scots): Habitation name from Wedale (now Stow) near Edinburgh. The origins of this place name are uncertain. The second element is evidently Old English "dael" or Old Norse "dair" valley (see dale). The first element might conceivably be the Old English "wedd" to pledge, security or its Old Norse cognitive "ved" (although this is not found elsewhere as a place name element). In Scotland the stress normally falls on the first syllable of the surname, but elsewhere the name is often accented on the second syllable to avoid association with the vocabulary word "waddle". Variations: Waddel, Waddle, Weddel, Woddell, Weddle.
NOTE: The Waddell surname arrived as a way to identify a man who hailed
from Wedale.
