Ewald

History & Origin

Ewald is an old Germanic name built from ewa, 'law', and wald, 'rule' or 'power' — 'one who governs by law'. It carries real history: two seventh-century missionaries to the continental Saxons, both named Ewald, are venerated together as the 'Two Ewalds'. In the United States the name belonged chiefly to German-speaking immigrant families in the early twentieth century.

Ewald crested around 1916, when German-American communities were at their most visible, and faded quickly thereafter — the anti-German sentiment of the First World War hastened the retreat of many such names. A boy named Ewald then would now be of the great-grandfather generation. It reads as a distinctly German heritage name and has not revived in English-speaking use.