The Goodwin One-Name Study has been started as a result of tracing my ancestry back to England from the early history of Virginia and North Carolina in the United States.  The plan, at this time, will be to work backwards through several of the US Goodwin lines to England.  It is hope to reconstruct several family lines as we proceed.

Additional information will be added to this profile as we proceed.

This one-name study was registered on July 1, 2018.

Currently. the registered variants for this study are: Goodwyn, Godwin, and Godwyn.

Origins and Meaning of Goodwin (as collected from various sources):

1) A surname found in the shires of Ayr, Lanark, and Stirling. From the Old English personal name Godwin, ‘God friend.’ The spelling Goodwin is due to the fact that the o in Godwin was originally pronounced long. Godwin, dapper and Godwin, camerarius of the bishop, witnessed a quitclaim by Robert, bishop of St. Andrews, 1127 (Nat. MSS., I, 27). Thomas Goodwyn, brother of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in 1414, appears again in 1426 as Thomas Gudewyne, brother of the order of St. John of Jerusalem (Bain, IV, 854; Egidii, p. 47).

From: “The Surnames of Scotland by George Fraser Black”

2) From the Old Norse, Guo-vinr (good friend); in the Domesday Book, Godwin; from the Flemish, Goddyn, GOetinck, Goetvinck, Guttin; from the French, Goudinne, Godefin; from the German, Guutwein; personal name Goduin, a tenant in chief; in the Domesday Book, Godinc, Goding, Godwin, Godwin, under-tenants at time of Survey. Going, Godwin, Saxon tenants, Edw. Conf. For varieties of spelling.

From: “British Family Names: Their Origin and Meaning by Henry Barber”

3) Though both these have the same derivation viz. Old-English god (good) wine (friend), in Ireland, when not of immigrant origin, they are synonyms of different native names: Godwin for O’Dea in Connacht (but not in Clare, the homeland of the O’deas); Goodwin for MacGoldrick in Tyrone and for MacGuigan in Cos. Derry and Tyrone.

From: “A Guide to Irish Surnames by Edward MacLysaght”

4) Goodwin – The principal home of this name is in Staffordshire, and in the adjacent counties of Derby and Cheshire. Besides its home in the midlands, it has a less important centre in Kent.

From: “Homes of Family Names in Great Britain by Henry Brougham Guppy”

5) From the very common Godwin (God’s friend) is derived Goodwin.

From: “Dictionary of American Family Names by Elsdon Coles Smith”

6) Goodwin/Goodwyn V. Godwin

From: “Surnames of the United Kingdom by Henry Harrison”

7) An English surname from the Old English forename Godwin (from elements meaning ‘good’ and ‘friend’). Famous from before the Norman Conquest as the name of the father of the English king Harold, it continued in use into the English surname period. Really (1980) gives details of an English family in which this patronymic name settled c. 1250. Therefore, it came into Wales ready-made as a surname, perhaps from the west Midlands area, since its Welsh home is Montgomeryshire. John Goodwin, 18C Quaker, was of Trefeglwys (E.R. Morris, 1982). Goodwyn is a common variant, while Goodwin is found once in the period of our survey.
1813-37 (V): Again a surname which is largely confined to the English border. It is common in Montgomeryshire (Newtown 0.78%).
Guppy: counts this spelling in several English counties, including Cheshire 0.30%, Derbyshire 0.40% and Herefordshire 0.17%, all possible influences.

From: “The Surnames of Wales: For Family Historians and Others by John Rowlands, Sheila Rowlands”

8) A surname of Old English origin found in parts of southern Scotland from the fifteenth century. Robert Goodwin, a Covenanter from Glasgow, was transported to East New Jersey in 1685.

From: The Scottish Surnames of Colonial America by David Dobson

9) Recorded in various forms including Godwin, Goodwin, Goodswin, and the Norfolk and East Anglian Godswen, this is an ancient English surname. It is of pre 7th century Anglo-Saxon origins, and has the fairly uncommon distinction of surviving the Norman Conquest of 1066, and the later influx of Norman names, which for ‘politically correct’ reasons killed off many of the early British names, or drove them into the outlying areas. The derivation is from the personal name “Godwine”, composed of the elements “god”, meaning either “god” or “good”, with the second element of “wine”, meaning friend or protector or “sweyn”, meaning “follower of”. These early “names” whether Olde English, Anglo-Saxon, or Scandanavian -Viking were usually distinctive compounds whose elements were associated with the gods of fire, water, and war. The surname is first recorded in 1177, when Walter Godwin, was listed in the county Pipe Rolls of the county of Norfolk, whilst other early examples include William Goodswein of Lincoln in the year 1206, Roger Gudswen of Norfolk in circa 1320, and William Godewaynes of Worcester in 1327. Examples of church recordingstaken from surviving church registers include: the christening of Elizabeth, the daughter of William Goodwin, at St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, on September 4th 1550, and the marriage of Henry Goodwin and Johan Boyser, at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, on January 16th 1564. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was often known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries surnames in every country have continued to “develop”, often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Read more: SurnamesDB http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Goodwin#ixzz5M1lT9v1a

In 1990 U.S. Federal Census, the surname GOODWIN was ranked as the 377th most recorded name.
In 2000 U.S. Federal Census, the surname GOODWIN was ranked as the 415th most recorded name.
In 2010 U.S. Federal Census, the surname GOODWIN was ranked as the 454th most recorded name.

There is a DNA one-name project already in existence at FamilyTreeDNA.    You can reach the DNA project page at: FamilyTreeDNA Goodwin-Godwin Project.

Goodwin One-Name Study website: https://goodwin.one-name.net

Facebook Group: Goodwin One Name Study