WADE. 1. Verstegan says, "Wade, of his dwelling at a meadow;" and others make it synonymous with Ford — a water that may be ivadecl. H.R. De Wade, and De la Wade. 2. It is also a personal name. Wade was one of the heroes of Scandinavian mythology, and became the subject of a medieval romance, often referred to in Chaucer and other writers, but now lost. "It appears," says Mr. Wright, "to have related a long series of wild adventures which Wade encountered in his boat, named Guingelot." Wright's Cant. Tales, ii. 93. A Wade or Wada, probably a Saxon, is named in Domesdny, as having held lands previously to the Survey.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.