Wagstaffe Surname

284,799th
Most Common
surname in the World

Approximately 1,351 people bear this surname

Most prevalent in:
England
Highest density in:
Isle of Man

Wagstaffe Surname Definition:

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'Wagstaff,' an official who was officious; v. Shakespear; v. also the statement under Wagspear.

Walter Waggestaf, Norfolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert Waggestaff, Oxfordshire, ibid.

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Wagstaffe Surname Distribution Map

PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England8661:64,3407,513
United States1161:3,124,646180,867
Jamaica1061:27,0752,083
Australia741:364,80730,412
Wales541:57,3065,200
Canada511:722,46357,796
Singapore211:262,27211,611
Scotland181:297,43413,849
Isle of Man141:6,1301,329
New Zealand81:566,04034,598
Thailand51:14,127,669603,945
Denmark41:1,411,17960,800
Jersey31:33,0674,675
Greece21:5,539,895129,142
Philippines11:101,238,223404,861
Russia11:144,123,056881,408
France11:66,422,722504,397
Switzerland11:8,212,915156,297
Cyprus11:884,87613,055
China11:1,367,321,56651,149
Brazil11:214,074,3321,693,628
Botswana11:2,186,92930,250
Belize11:355,4743,977
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England4241:57,4896,779
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States21:25,109,342694,541

Wagstaffe Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'Wagstaff,' an official who was officious; v. Shakespear; v. also the statement under Wagspear.

Walter Waggestaf, Norfolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert Waggestaff, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Edward Wagstaffe. Nichol's History of Leicestershire.

1585. Thomas Wagstaffe Warwickshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1696. Baptised — Ellen, d. Thomas Wagstaff: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1737. Married — John Wagstaffe and Alice Littler: St. Michael, Cornhill.

A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

(Scandinavian or Scandinavian + English) a nickname for a wand-bearing official, as a Beadle [see under Wagg1, and + Old Norse staf-r = Old English stæf, a staff] Walter Waggestaf.—Hundred Rolls

Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

Applied to one who could brandish or wag a staff with effect. It belongs to the same class as Shakeshaft, Longstaffe, Shakspeare, &c., and is the most common of that class. It is curious to observe, among the archives of Stratfor-dupon-Avon, record of proceedings between Richard Wagstaff and John Shahespere-the latter being the poet's father. See Halliwell's Life of Shakspeare, p. 41.

Patronymica Britannica (1860) by Mark Antony Lower

(H.R. Waggestaff, Wagestaf). The last syllable of this name is the Anglo-Saxon stede, a place, station (locus, situs, statio, spatium). compare the names Bickerstaff, Bickerstaffe, Eavestaff, Hackstaff, Halstaff, Halstead, Halsted, Hardstaff, Langstaffe, Longstaff.

Ludus Patronymicus (1868) by Richard Stephen Charnock

Wagstaff is an old English name that six hundred years ago occurred as Wagestaf and Waggestaf in Norfolk and Oxfordshire (H. R.). Since those early times one of the principal homes of the name has been in Warwickshire, the Wagstaffes of Tachebrooke being a distinguished family in the 16th and 17th centuries; but probably they had been much longer in the county of Warwick, since an epitaph relating to one of this family, who died in 1681, informs us that he was "descended from the ancient family of the Wagstaffes of Harbury," a place also in Warwickshire (Dugdale's "Warwickshire"). There was a family of the name in Boddington, Northamptonshire, in the 17th century (Baker's "Northamptonshire"). At present the name is also established in Derbyshire and Essex.

Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890) by Henry Brougham Guppy

Wagstaffe Last Name Facts

Where Does The Last Name Wagstaffe Come From? nationality or country of origin

The last name Wagstaffe occurs in England more than any other country or territory. It can be rendered in the variant forms:. Click here for other potential spellings of this name.

How Common Is The Last Name Wagstaffe? popularity and diffusion

The surname Wagstaffe is the 284,799th most common family name on a global scale, borne by around 1 in 5,394,186 people. This last name is predominantly found in Europe, where 71 percent of Wagstaffe live; 71 percent live in Northern Europe and 71 percent live in British Isles.

Wagstaffe is most frequent in England, where it is held by 866 people, or 1 in 64,340. In England it is most frequent in: West Midlands, where 11 percent live, Greater Manchester, where 10 percent live and South Yorkshire, where 10 percent live. Excluding England this last name is found in 22 countries. It is also found in The United States, where 9 percent live and Jamaica, where 8 percent live.

Wagstaffe Family Population Trend historical fluctuation

The frequency of Wagstaffe has changed over time. In England the number of people carrying the Wagstaffe surname expanded 204 percent between 1881 and 2014 and in The United States it expanded 5,800 percent between 1880 and 2014.

Wagstaffe Last Name Statistics demography

In The United States those holding the Wagstaffe surname are 10.1% more likely to be registered Democrats than The US average, with 63.33% being registered to vote for the political party.

The amount Wagstaffe earn in different countries varies somewhat. In United States they earn 36.3% more than the national average, earning $58,812 USD per year and in Canada they earn 43.21% more than the national average, earning $71,151 CAD per year.

Phonetically Similar Names

SurnameSimilarityWorldwide IncidencePrevalency
Waggstaffe955/
Wagstaff9413,585/
Waggstaff893/
Wagstaffs890/
Wagstaf889/
Bagstaff8256/
Wagstaft823/
Wagstapf821/
Waxstaff821/
Bakstab502/
Bagstow500/

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Footnotes

  • Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
  • Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
  • Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
  • Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
  • Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
  • Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
  • Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to Wagstaffe
  • To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on Family​Search, My​Heritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis