View Message

an American Society of Names (I think they have a website - you can probably search for them) and they publish a journal, and somwhere around 1962-3 there was an article in that journal about the original and inventive naming habits in various parts of the US. This type of minor alteration to a well established name was very common, but is now rather unusual in most areas...You might also look at the Utah Name site, which discusses the same sort of name (I think it's on the links list for this site, but if you search for it you should find it).

---

I think inventiveness is a more likely origin, but there is an English surname Velden which derives from Fielden or Felden and means (dweller) by the field...