What's the origin and meaning of Walker, if it doesn't mean "To Walk" or one who walks?

Question

What's the origin and meaning of Walker, if it doesn't mean "To Walk" or one who walks?

Answer 1

Surname: Walker

This ancient and distinguished surname, with over fifty entries in the "Dictionary of National Biography", and having no less than sixty Coats of Arms, is of Anglo-Scottish origins. It is either an occupational name for a fuller, or a locational name from a place called Walker in Northumberland. If occupational it derives from the pre 7th Century word "wealcere", and describes the work of the fuller to scour and thicken raw cloth in a large vessel containing a water mixture by trampling on it. Job descriptive surnames denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and became hereditary when a son followed the father into the same skill or business. If locational, Walker in Northumberland is recorded as Walkyr in the "Inquisitiones post mortem", dated 1268 from the Old Scandinavian word "kiarr", and means "The wall by the marsh". Early examples of recordings include Robert le Walker, in the Assize Court Rolls of Yorkshire in 1260, whilst Sir Edward Walker (1612 - 1677), was the purchaser of Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon in 1675. Robert Walker (1789 - 1854) the curate of Seathwaite, Cumberland, was popularly known as "Wonderful Walker", and commemorated by Wordsworth. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard le Walkere. This was dated 1248, in "Select Documents of the Abbey of Bec", Warwickshire, during the reign of Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272.

familysearch.org has these variations of spellings:

WELKER ; WALCKER; WAAKA; VELGER ; & VELGERSDR. The name is found world-wide.

    The earliest listing I could find was  Auberlin Walker--Birth: About 1447 Reutlingen, Schwarzwaldkreis, Wuerttemberg, Germany.

Answer 2

Here's what's posted on Ancestry.com. It looks like it does often mean "one who walks". But like many names, it comes from more than one country so there can be more than one meaning. I have a friend whose mother's name was Walker...they were Russian. It was an Americanized form of Volker. You never know what things really mean until you figure out who you ancestors really were.

Walker Name Meaning and History

English (especially Yorkshire) and Scottish: occupational name for a fuller, Middle English walkere, Old English wealcere, an agent derivative of wealcan ‘to walk, tread’. This was the regular term for the occupation during the Middle Ages in western and northern England. Compare Fuller and Tucker. As a Scottish surname it has also been used as a translation of Gaelic Mac an Fhucadair ‘son of the fuller’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4