Wulf
A surname from the old Germanic word for “wolf,” sometimes also shortened from older names beginning with Wulf- or Ulf-.
The #7,397 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,625 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Wulf comes from the ancient Germanic word for “wolf,” seen in Old English wulf, Old Norse ulfr, and Old High German wolf. As a surname, it may have begun as a nickname for someone thought to be wolf-like in character, or as a shortened form of older compound names beginning with Wulf- or Ulf-, such as Wulfheard or Ulfketel. In some families it also reflects later German or Scandinavian surname forms built directly from the same root.
History
The wolf element was common in early Germanic personal names, and surnames like Wulf often grew out of those older given names. In England, related forms appear in medieval records and were later simplified in spelling, while in German-speaking areas Wulf survived as both a given name element and a surname. The modern surname can therefore have more than one independent origin, depending on the family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same wolf root turns up in many old names, including compounds like Wulfheard and Ulfketel, which literally mean things like “wolf-hard” and “wolf-kettle.”
From the historical record
“record down to the present day; and the majority, although long ob- solete as Christian names, are still preserved as surnames. ''Proba- bly," says de Wulf, "all the names in use in Ireland before the fifth century were of native origin ; but from that period onwards foreign names have been borrowed from time to…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)