Ault Last Name: Meaning and Heraldic Roots

Ault is a spelling of the Scottish surname Auld. Name scholars give the meaning as “Descendant of Ealda (old); the elderly person”.

• Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists.
• The two spellings differ in a small detail: Ault has “t” where Auld has “d”.
• About 7,509 people in the United States were recorded as Ault in 2010, placing it 4,723 on the national list. That is enough to place it in the top 5,000 American surnames.

Family crest and blazon

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Ault, so the heraldry linked to Auld is a starting point, not an automatic right. For the full story, order the Ault surname pack.