Vale
A topographic surname meaning someone who lived in or near a valley.
The #9,728 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,605 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Vale comes from Middle English val(e), from Old French val, ultimately from Latin vallis, meaning “valley.” As a surname, it was used for someone who lived by a vale or low-lying valley landscape. The same idea appears in older English surname dictionaries as a simple topographic name.
History
This surname is recorded in medieval and later English forms, and it has close spelling variants such as Vaile and Vaill. In historical surname dictionaries it is grouped with other names formed from local landscape features, rather than from personal names or occupations. The name remains uncommon in the United States today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname dictionary even glossed Vale simply as “a valley, a low ground.”
From the historical record
“VAILE VAILL VALE (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Dweller in a Vale [M.E. val{e, Fr. val, Lat. vall-is, valley] ■ 1 , \ = Vasey, Vassey, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)