Walter

A Germanic name, from Middle English Walter, from Old Northern French Waltier, from Frankish *Waltheri (compare Old High German Waltheri, which see for more details), from Proto-West Germanic *Waldahari, from Proto-Germanic *Waldaharjaz, from *waldą (“ruler”) +‎ *harjaz (“army, host”).

Related to Old English Waldhere. Compare herald and Harold, in which these elements are reversed.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒltə/, /ˈwɔːltə/

  • Audio (Southern England); /ˈwɒltə/:

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔltɚ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑltɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɒltə(ɹ), -ɔːltə(ɹ)

Walter

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Whitmore. And so am I; my name is Walter Whitmore. / How now! why start'st thou? what! doth death affright?
     Suffolk. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. / A cunning man did calculate my birth, / And told me that by Water I should die. / Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded; / Thy name is - Gaultier, being rightly sounded.

   • 1991, Julian Barnes, Talking It Over, →ISBN, page 13:

     And with some appellations, the contrary applies. Like Walter, for instance. You can't be Walter in a pram. You can't be Walter until you're about seventy-five in my view.

   • 2003, Elinor Sisulu, Walter & Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime, page 151:

     Walter complained about the assault and isolation of the volunteers. Two policemen immediately grabbed him and dragged him to the punishment cells.

   • 2023 June 9, John Mac Ghlionn, “The new Andrew Tate: Toxic ‘manosphere’ podcaster claims ‘all women are whores’”, in New York Post‎^[1], archived from the original on 31 March 2025:

     On the podcast, Gaines and his co-host Walter Weekes (Fresh), regularly refer to women as “hoes” or 304s (304 on an upside-down calculator looks like the word “hoe”).

2. A surname.
   • 2023 June 16, “The Guardian view on Trump and political violence: more than words”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 1 August 2023:

     Prof Barbara Walter notes in her book How Civil Wars Start that two conditions are key: ethnic factionalism and anocracy – when a country is neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic.

3. An unincorporated community in Cullman County, Alabama, United States.
4. A township in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, United States.

• Waltman Walter syndrome
• Walterboro

• (pet forms): Wally, Walt, Wat
• (surnames): Fitzwater, Gwatkin, Walters, Waters, Waterson, Watkin, Watkins, Watkinson, Watson, Watt, Watts

• Lawter, rewalt

• Walther

From Middle High German Walther, from Old High German Waltheri. Cognate with English Walter.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvaltər/, [ˈval.tɐ], [ˈʋal-]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -altəʁ

Walter m (proper noun, strong, genitive Walters or Walter)

1. a male given name

Walter m or f (proper noun, surname, masculine genitive Walters or (with an article) Walter, feminine genitive Walter, plural Walters or Walter)

1. a common surname originating as a patronymic

Unadapted borrowing from English Walter or German Walter (and Walther). Doublet of Gualtiero, which was borrowed through Old Northern French.

• IPA^(key): /ˈval.ter/^[1]
• Rhymes: -alter

Walter m

1. a male given name

• Gualtiero

From Old Northern French Waltier, from Frankish *Waltheri (compare Old High German Waltheri, which see for more details), from Proto-West Germanic *Waldahari.

Walter

1. a male given name

• English: Walter
• Yola: Wathere

• “Walter”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• Hyphenation: Wal‧ter

Walter m

1. a male given name, variant of Válter, equivalent to English Walter

• IPA^(key): /ˈwalteɾ/ [ˈwal̪.t̪eɾ]
• Rhymes: -alteɾ
• Syllabification: Wal‧ter

Walter m

1. a male given name, equivalent to English Walter, alternative form of Gutierre

• A popular name in Spanish-speaking South America. As in English, stress is on the first syllable, even though Spanish orthography would necessitate the placing of an accent mark, rendering it ̼"Wálter", this spelling is seldom used.

• Audio:

  (file)

Walter c (genitive Walters)

1. a male given name, variant of Valter