Attwood One-Name Study

Attwood
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Attwood One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Frequency of the name
Data
Links
Contact Details

About the Attwood One-Name Study

The surnames 'Attwood' and 'Atwood' have their origins (it would appear) in the Home and Midland counties of England, but now occur in most of the United Kingdom's former colonies and in particular the USA, with one or two appearances in other countries. This study is concerned with the collection of all occurrences of the surname worldwide. The study is relatively new, I have been collecting the data for a number of years but have only relatively recently commenced the One Name Study in ernest and am making progress (albeit slowly) in 'harvesting' data.

Variants

Some documented variations in spelling are Attwood, Atte-Wode, Atwood, Atwode, Attewode Attwode, Attewoode, Atwod, Atwud, Atud , Attwool, de Bois, deBoys, (French) and de Bosco (Latin) and many more!

Origin of the surname

The surname, Attwood is derived from a locative medieval bye-name, i.e. originating from a place name, such as -hill, -ford, -brook -well and of course -wood. The name would therefore appear to mean, 'dweller at or near a wood'. The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford University Press, 1997) gives the following definition: 'Attwood, Atwood: Attewode 1243...Robert Atwode 1457...'Dweller by the wood' OE wudu.' The name is made up of the most common preposition at, (Old English ǽt) which coalesced with the definite article the, to form the obsolete preposition atte, (Middle English) together with the Old English wudu, wiodu, wudu, wude, wode, wodd, woode, uud etc. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 Clarendon Press). The surname Atte Wode may be transcribed as de Bois (or de Boys) or de Bosco. There is therefore scope for further variation resulting from abbreviation, misspelling or an imprecise understanding of the language by the scribe, e.g. Joh Boys, 1357 (quoted in Nash's Worcestershire, 1799) and the Abbot of Evesham Abbey. William de Boys, 1345-1367.From: 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Abbey of Evesham', A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2 (1971), pp. 112-27.

Frequency of the name

In 1881 the enumerators recorded that there were 3588 individuals with the name Attwood/Atwood living in the UK in 45 Counties. Work on establishing frequency from other sources is in progress.

Data

Indexes to all UK census's. Work on General Record Office indexes is in progress.

Links

For more information and my small database of notable Attwoods and Atwoods visit my website at Attwood Family History

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Christopher Attwood
E-mail:

This page last updated 25 February 2008.