WALDEVE: From the Old English personal name Waldþeof, the meaning of which is a matter of disagreement among scholars. Wallef filius Arnabol made a grant of land to Kelso Abbey, c. 1153-65 (Kelso, 27). Waldeuus, son of Matilda, the queen of David I, by her first marriage to Simon de St. Luz, became abbot of Melrose, and died 1159 (Chron. Mail., s. a.). Waldevus, earl of Dunbar, son of earl Gospatric, one of the sureties in 1175 for WiL am the Lion that he would observe the treaty of Falaise, gave charters to the abbeys of Kelso, Melrose, and to the nuns of Coldingham, and died 1183 (Annals, p. 249). Waldev filius Boidini or Boydini, a man of the abbot of Kelso, is in record, c. 1160-80 (Kelso, 111,115). Waldef, vicecomes, witnessed confirmation of grant of the church of Kilmaurs to the Abbey of Kelso, a. 1185 (ibid., 284). Waldevus filius Merleswani, who witnessed the gift of fifteen acres of Balmulinauch (Balmerino) to the church of St. Andrews before 1225 (RPSA., p. 272) may be the person who gave name to Beeth-Waldef in Fife (RD., p. 52). Waldevus, vicecomes, and Waldevus filius Baldwini, vicecomes, witnessed grant of the church of Wicestun (now Wiston) to the Abbey of Kelso between 1247-64 (Kelso, 336), and Waldev, son of Baldewin, was one of the witnesses to the gift by Waldev, son of Cospatric, of the lands of Dundas to Helias, son of Huctred (Omond, Arnision memoirs, p. xxv). As Walthew it survives as a surname in Lancashire.

(English) the Middle English Waldeve,Waldief, Waldeof, Anglo-Saxon Walþéof [Old English W(e)al(h, foreigner, Welshman + þéof, thief] This (chiefly Northern) name, evid. orig. a nickname of contempt, ultimately came to be borne by some of the highest Anglian dignitaries.