Hereward the Wake (also known as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, c. 1035 – c.1072) is an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England.

Hereward's base, when leading the rebellion against the Norman rulers, is in the Isle of Ely, and according to legend he roams The Fens, covering North Cambridgeshire, Southern Lincolnshire and West Norfolk, leading popular opposition to William the Conqueror.

Hereward is an Old English name, composed of the elements here "army" and weard "guard" (cognate with the Old High German name Heriwart).

The epithet "the Wake" is recorded in the late 14th century, and may mean "the watchful", or derive from the Anglo-Norman Wake family who later claimed descent from him.