Walter (name)

Gender	Male
Word/name	Old High German
Meaning	ruler of the army
Related names	Valter Valtyr Wouter Gauthier Gualterio Gualtierre

Walter or Walther is a German masculine given name derived from Old High German Walthari, from an even older Proto-Germanic name combining *wald- "ruler" and *χarja-, χari- "army". The Dutch name Wouter has the same Proto-Germanic origin.

The Latinized form is Waltharius, the title of a poem on the legendary Gothic king Walter of Aquitaine. A fragmentary Old English poem on the same character is known as Waldere. The name also entered the French language as Gauthier (and Wauthier), Spanish as Gutierre and Italian as Gualtiero.

Jacob Grimm in Teutonic Mythology speculates that Walthari, literally "wielder of hosts", may have been an epithet of the god of war, Ziu or Eor, and that the circumstance that the hero of the Waltharius poems loses his right hand in battle may be significant, linking him to the Norse tradition of Tyr.

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