Wait Family Crest & Name History

Wait and Waite are two spellings with one history. Surname dictionaries give the meaning as “watchman”.

Spelling and variants

Wait drops the “e” of Waite, a simplification that clerks often made. Regional accents shaped spellings long before dictionaries fixed them. The same family of names includes Waight, Wayt and Wayte.

Wait by the numbers

The 2010 census count for Wait in the United States was 3,179, good for rank 10,145. Names that sound alike, such as Wit, Watt and Witt, are easily confused in old records.

Wait coat of arms

There is no single Wait family crest for every bearer. Herald Lab researches the arms historically associated with the name and explains whose they were.

Want more than a summary? See the Wait family name pack.