WOOD - Name Meaning & Origin

WOOD Surname Meaning & Origin:

1) Originally used to describe a person who lived in or worked in a wood or forest. Derived from Middle English wode, meaning "wood."

2) Possibly derived from the Old English wad, meaning crazed or crazy, the name was sometimes used to describe someone considered mad or violent.

3) An ancient Scottish surname, first called De Bosco, because the family bore trees in their coat of arms.

Wood is the 75th most popular surname in the United States. Ward is also popular in England, coming in as the 26th most common surname.

Surname Origin:

English, Scottish

Alternate Surname Spellings:

WOODE, WOODS

Read More

WARD Name Meaning and Origin

By Kimberly Powell

Genealogy Resources for the Surname WOOD:

100 Most Common U.S. Surnames & Their Meanings
Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown... Are you one of the millions of Americans sporting one of these top 100 common last names from the 2000 census?

WOOD Family Genealogy Forum
Search this popular genealogy forum for the Wood surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Wood query.

FamilySearch - WOOD Genealogy
Find records, queries, and lineage-linked family trees posted for the Wood surname and its variations.

WOOD Surname & Family Mailing Lists
RootsWeb hosts several free mailing lists for researchers of the Wood surname.

Cousin Connect - WOOD Genealogy Queries
Read or post genealogy queries for the surname Wood, and sign up for free notification when new Wood queries are added.

DistantCousin.com - WOOD Genealogy & Family History
Free databases and genealogy links for the last name Wood.

-- Looking for the meaning of a given name? Check out First Name Meanings

-- Can't find your last name listed? Suggest a surname to be added to the Glossary of Surname Meanings & Origins.

-----------------------

References: Surname Meanings & Origins

Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.

Menk, Lars. A Dictionary of German Jewish Surnames. Avotaynu, 2005.

Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia. Avotaynu, 2004.

Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.

Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

>> Back to Glossary of Surname Meanings & Origins