Walker

Walker moves with the cadence of its own meaning. Drawn from the Old English wealcere, it named the medieval fuller who walked on cloth in water and fuller's earth to thicken it, an occupational surname that outlived the occupation by centuries. In American use it carries a Southern inheritance, from the novelist Walker Percy to the photographer Walker Evans, though it now sits comfortably across regions near the top 80. The name has a denim durability, unhurried and self-possessed. Increasingly used as a unisex choice, it suits a child with a long stride and a habit of looking closely at small things on the ground.