Wilburn History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Etymology of Wilburn

What does the name Wilburn mean?

Wilburn is a name that first reached England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Wilburn family lived in Lincolnshire. Their name is derived from the Old English word welle, meaning well, and the Old Norse word brunnr, meaning stream or spring, and indicates that the original bearer lived near a well by a stream or spring. 1

The Domesday Book of 1086 has three listings: Welborne (Walebruna), Norfolk; Welbourne (Wellebrune), Lincolnshire; and Welburn (Wellebrune), North Yorkshire. 2

Early Origins of the Wilburn family

The surname Wilburn was first found in Lincolnshire where they were Lords of the manor of Welbourn and conjecturally descended from a Norman noble, Robert Malet, who was granted the church and mill by King William the Conqueror in 1066. The ancestry of Robert goes back to Graville near Havre in Normandy in 990, where he was descended from Algar, the seventh Earl of Mercia. 3

Early rolls gave a glimpse at the various spellings in use over the years: Walebrun was recorded in Lincolnshire c. 1155; Robert Walebrun was registered in the Subsidy Rolls for Sussex in 1296; and John Walebron was listed in the Subsidy Rolls for Sussex in 1327. 4 The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 had one entry for the family, that of Hugh de Welleburn, Lincolnshire. 5

Early History of the Wilburn family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Wilburn research. Another 42 words (3 lines of text) covering the years 1605, 1640, 1697, 1699, 1702 and 1929 are included under the topic Early Wilburn History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Wilburn Spelling Variations

It is only in the last few hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, Anglo-Norman surnames like Wilburn are characterized by many spelling variations. Scribes and monks in the Middle Ages spelled names they sounded, so it is common to find several variations that refer to a single person. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages such as Norman French and Latin, even literate people regularly changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Wilburn include Welborne, Welborn, Welbourne, Welburn and others.

Early Notables of the Wilburn family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Thomas Welbourne (Welbourn) (executed at York, 1 August 1605), an English Roman Catholic teacher, Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929. Thomas Wellborn (also: Welbourn, Welbourne, Wellbourne), (1640-1702), served as Captain in the King's Militia, and...
Another 41 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Wilburn Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Wilburn Ranking

In the United States, the name Wilburn is the 2,077^th most popular surname with an estimated 14,922 people with that name. 6

Wilburn migration to the United States +

Faced with the chaos present in England at that time, many English families looked towards the open frontiers of the New World with its opportunities to escape oppression and starvation. People migrated to North America, as well as Australia and Ireland in droves, paying exorbitant rates for passages in cramped, unsafe ships. Many of the settlers did not make the long passage alive, but those who did see the shores of North America were welcomed with great opportunity. Many of the families that came from England went on to make essential contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Wilburn, or a variant listed above:

Wilburn Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

G Wilburn, who landed in San Francisco, California in 1851 7
William Wilburn, who arrived in Allegany (Allegheny) County, Pennsylvania in 1860 7

Contemporary Notables of the name Wilburn (post 1700) +

Tom Wilburn (1928-2015), American hospital executive, founder of TriHealth
Leila Ross Wilburn (1885-1967), American early 20th century architect
Captain Newton Jasper Wilburn (1874-1927), Kentucky National Guard officer who played a crucial part in ending the Black Patch Tobacco Wars
Jimmy Wilburn (1908-1984), American racecar driver inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1994
Barry Wilburn (b. 1963), former professional American football player
Walter Wilburn, American Republican politician, Supervisor of Bedford Township, Monroe County, Michigan, 2007-09; Defeated in primary, 2012 8
Jake Wilburn, American Libertarian politician, Candidate for Missouri State House of Representatives 130th District, 2012 8
Eugene Wilburn, American Democratic Party politician, Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Georgia, 1948 8
Wilburn Hollis (1940-2024), American college football player
Master Sergeant Wilburn Kirby Ross (1922-2017), American Army soldier awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1944 for his actions on October 30, 1944

Historic Events for the Wilburn family +

Arrow Air Flight 1285

Mr. Darnell Wilburn (1954-1985), American Staff Sergeant from Chicago, Illinois, USA who died in the Arrow Air Flight 1285 crash 9

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States Of America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1975. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0636-X)
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 9) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html
American War Memorials - Flight 1285. (Retrieved 2016, August 24) . Retrieved from http://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=317&MemID=550