English Surnames and the Meaning of the Name Wrathall

Keith Brushett (http://www.brushwork.co.uk/Walker.html) wrote the following about the origin of English surnames:
A surname is a name borne hereditarily by all members of a family in male-line descent. In Anglo~Saxon times people had personal names only, even when they were known by an additional 'to-name' (e.g. Edmund Ironsides).

Hereditary surnames were first introduced into England by some of the leading followers of the Conqueror, and most were derived from the place-names of their estates, either in France or England. The custom began in the late 12th century and spread slowly with the South of England leading the way. By 1400 three- quarters of the population are reckoned to have borne hereditary family names and the process was complete by 1450. Surnames had five main origins : place names, location of abode, occupations, nicknames and patronymics (derived from the personal name or occupation of a person's father, or more rarely mother or relative e.g. Smithson, Fitzwalter)
Andrew Wrathall supplied the following info, taken from a certificate from "The Historical Research Center" in London, which is a part of the Knights and Names website):
The English surname Wrathall is of locative origin deriving from the name of the place where the initial bearer once lived or held land, thus affording him a suitable means of identity in his local community. In this instance the place called Wrothall in West Yorkshire was in medieval times the origin of this name, but it has long since become extinct, resulting in the references to the name disappearing from records in the country. The place name itself was derived from the Old English words "Wraett and halh", meaning "The nook where cross-wort grows.

"The fashion of adding surnames began in the thirteenth century when the population was expanding, becoming more complex, and there was a concerted movement from the countryside into the towns and villages. It had become necessary to be able to distinguish reliably between individuals for many reasons including the need for records, and commercial and land transactions, and a number of methods evolved including this one, the locative."

[Andrew is descended from a branch of the Wrathall family that emigrated to Australia in 1831.]

This derivation seems even more reasonable given that "Wraythall" was the most common variant spelling in the Linton Parish Records. This variant would have been pronounced "Rate - hall", identical to the pronunciation of the Old English phrase "Wraett-halh", which is the Lower Saxon (Old English) phrase for the nook (or hollow) where the cross-wort grows. The area of the Yorkshire Dales was settled by invaders from Lower Saxony, so modern English has many words from their extinct language. The parish priests were spelling the name as Wrathoe or Wratho in the earliest known Linton records, perhaps because a synonym for "hollow" (hole) was shortened to "ho" by the peasants of the Dales when pronouncing the word. An even earlier spelling apparently was Wratholgh. The American Heritage Dictionary 3rd Edition (copyright 1992) has the following entry for the word "hollow":
Kevie, an Auckland resident and descendant of New Zealander Stephen Wrathall (1816 - 1896), found this:
In the book "Surnames of the United Kingdom", a concise Etymological Dictionary, by Henry Harrison - volume 1 - 1912, the following is noted [page 311]:

Wrathall - (Eng) Dweller at Wrætta's Hall.

[O.E. h(e)all, hall: the pers. name is f. O.E. wrætt, ornament, jewel]
View Kevie's Wrathall page [The word "wrætta" appears in "Beowulf", but not as a proper noun. There is apparently no known use of "Wrætta" as the name of a person.]