In 1997, Roy Wrathall of Mytholmroyd passed on this account of the Derivation of Wrathall name:
Within my family there are two stories about Wrathall origins :[Roy is descended from the branch of the Wrathall family starting with Anthonie (1581-1650?), eldest son of Roberte Wrathall of Linton (1554-1620?)].1) My father told us that 'we' came out of Scotland on a white horse - my opinion is that this is an amusing tale he either made up or borrowed.
2) Another 'explanation' came from a book - I can't recall the title, however I think it was my niece who found it. The story goes that during the Wars of the Roses, a man called John was 'cornered' by several men of the opposite side. He dispatched them all and was then know as John Wrath All (ie full of wrath).
No proof for either though I don't attach much weight to the first, however the second is just about plausible.
The surname "Wrathall" is clearly Anglo-Saxon, no doubt going back to the time when the Anglians settled Yorkshire (Northumbria) prior to the Viking take-over. As partial proof, most Americans and Europeans (Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, et. al.) cannot pronounce or spell the name.[Milton was the grandson of Flora Sabin and James Wrathall (1828-1896).]One possible derivation is from the words Rath (great house) and hall (main hall or room), implying early ancestors were stout yeomen of a Saxon ealdorman (Earl) who had earned a place of honor in the mead-drinking hall. If true, they might have been mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in some variant spelling according to the Soundex code.
While common Anglo-Saxon first names are Eadward, Eadgar, Aelfred, Aethelstan, etc., the older first names in the Wrathall line (Robert [Robert], William [Guillame], John [Jean], etc.) are all Norman French, so it is possible that an original Anglo-Saxon Wrathall married a Norman woman around the time the Normans took over Northumbria from the Vikings, and at that time began using Norman first names for their offspring. This might mean they were included in the Domesday Book.
Milton also believed that, because of their fair hair and blue eyes, the Wrathall line might have been Scandinavian (Viking) in origin, taking on an Anglo-Saxon locative name from an extinct place called "Wetherall" in Yorkshire. He was told that the name "Wrathall" was unusual or rare, but that there was always a tendency to shorten or abbreviate locative surnames.
In Myra Simmonds' early letters, she says "Just incidentally, my mother had a cousin who was married to a Cambridge historian - he said that Wrathall was an Anglo-Saxon name meaning "Angry Wolf" ".In Old English (from "Beowulf") "wrath" meant hostile. They didn't use "th" in Old Norse or Old English, but rather "eth" and "thorn", neither of which can be displayed as text by some web-browsers. In Old English, wolf was "wulf", so "Angry Wolf" would be pronounced "Wrathwulf", which we haven't seen yet. In Old Norse, angry was "reithan" and wolf was "ulf". They probably spoke a mixture of Old English and Old Norse in the Dales, so perhaps the Cambridge historian meant "Wrathulf", which would be similar to the "Wratholff" seen in the Poll Tax records. However, it's unlikely that the historian had seen the "Wratholff" spelling.