Old English surnames, often searched as Anglo-Saxon surnames, are family names built from the language of England before 1066: Smith, Wright, Walker, Brown, Wood, Green, Hall, Bradley, Godwin and Edwards are all on the list. None of them was a fixed family name before the Normans arrived: English surnames became hereditary after the Conquest, and by 1400 most English families had one, according to the history set out on Wikipedia’s surname page. The words and the personal names underneath them, though, are pure Old English, and they still fill the top 20.
This guide is part of our Scottish Names collection. Browse the full Scottish Names directory, start with the British surnames guide for the four-nation picture, or see how Normans fit in with our Norman surnames in Scotland and England.
This is for anyone who suspects their surname is older than the Normans and wants to know for sure: family historians, people with an English name living in Scotland or America, and anyone who has been told their name is “Anglo-Saxon” by a relative at a wedding. Below you get a checker for 88 surnames, the numbers on how common they are, the building blocks that make up the place-name surnames, and a straight answer on which names truly go back before 1066.
A wee bit of context first. Old English was spoken in England from roughly the 5th century to the 12th. Anglo-Saxons had one name each, Godwine or Wulfric, sometimes with a byname. The Domesday survey of 1086 caught the moment it all changed: the English landholders of 1066 still carried Old English names, but by 1086 the big estates had passed to men called William, Robert and Hugh. Surnames grew up after that, using whatever words people had to hand, and most of those words were Old English.
Two Scots Abroad · Scottish names
Old English surname origin checker
88 surnames with Old English roots. Type your surname or a meaning, then filter by how the name was formed and how old the root is. Each card shows the Old English form, the meaning, common variants and where the name is found.
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How many common English surnames are Old English?
Nine of England’s 20 commonest surnames have Old English roots. Using the percentages from a University College London surname study, as listed on Wikipedia, the Old English group is Smith, Brown, Wright, Walker, White, Green, Hall and Wood, plus Clark, which comes from Old English clerc, a word Old English had itself borrowed from Latin. Most of the other 11 are son-of names built on Christian first names like John, William and Thomas, and Taylor, which came through Anglo-Norman French.
| Rank in England | Surname | Share of people | Old English root? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smith | 1.26% | Yes: smiþ, a metal or wood worker |
| 2 | Jones | 0.75% | No: son of John |
| 3 | Taylor | 0.59% | No: Anglo-Norman taillour |
| 4 | Brown | 0.56% | Yes: brūn, brown, dark |
| 10 | Wright | 0.32% | Yes: wyrhta, a maker |
| 13 | Walker | 0.30% | Yes: wealcere, a fuller of cloth |
| 14 | White | 0.30% | Yes: hwīt, white, fair |
| 16 | Green | 0.28% | Yes: grēne, the village green |
| 17 | Hall | 0.28% | Yes: heall, a hall |
| 18 | Wood | 0.27% | Yes: wudu, a wood |
| 20 | Clark | 0.26% | Yes, via a Latin loan: clerc, a clergyman |
Scotland tells the same story with a Scottish accent. Smith (1.28 percent) and Brown (0.94 percent) are first and second there too, Young sits 16th and Reid, the Scots spelling of Old English rēad (red), 12th. Wales is the odd one out: Edwards, at 0.93 percent and 11th place, is the only Old English name in the Welsh top ten-plus, and it got there as a son-of name on Edward. Our Welsh surnames guide explains why the Welsh list looks so different.
Which Anglo-Saxon names survived 1066?
The surnames built on Anglo-Saxon first names are the rarest kind, and the PASE Domesday database shows why. Its record of every named person in Domesday lists the landholders of 1066 and the lords of 1086 side by side. In 1066 the commonest names are all English. By 1086 they have been pushed out of the top table almost completely.
| Rank | Commonest names, holders in 1066 | People | Commonest names, lords in 1086 | People |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ælfric | 238 | William | 63 |
| 2 | Alwine | 227 | Robert | 34 |
| 3 | Godric | 223 | Hugh | 23 |
| 4 | Godwine | 209 | Ralph | 23 |
| 5 | Almær | 152 | Roger | 22 |
| 6 | Wulfric | 138 | Godwine | 19 |
| 7 | Eadric | 135 | Ælfric | 16 |
| 8 | Alweard | 118 | Walter | 15 |
Godwine and Ælfric hang on into the 1086 list, and that is roughly what happened to the surnames too. A few Old English names were common enough, or royal enough, to keep being given after the Conquest: Godwin, Godric, Edward, Edmund, Wulfnoth. Those became surnames when the fashion for surnames arrived. Ælfric, the single most common name in the whole record, left no famous surname at all, which is a good reminder that popularity in 1066 was no guarantee of anything.
How Old English surnames are built
Every Old English surname got its start in one of four ways. Knowing which one yours is tells you how old the root really is.
- From a personal name. Godwin, Woolnough, Aldred. The name itself was in use before 1066, so this is as close to an “Anglo-Saxon surname” as you get.
- From a place. Bradley, Ashton, Washington. The place was named in Old English, often centuries before anyone took its name as a surname.
- From a job. Smith, Wright, Walker, Stewart. The job word is Old English; the surname formed in the 1100s to 1300s.
- From where someone lived or what they looked like. Wood, Hill, Green; Brown, Young, Reid. The word is Old English, the surname is medieval.
Place-name surnames are where the Old English really shows, because the building blocks are so regular. These are the endings and beginnings that turn up again and again, with meanings from the list of place-name elements that cites the University of Nottingham’s Key to English Place-Names.
| Element | Old English | Meaning | Surnames that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ton | tūn | enclosure, estate, homestead | Ashton, Clifton, Preston, Norton, Sutton, Hilton |
| -ley, -leigh, -lee | lēah | woodland clearing | Bradley, Langley, Stanley, Ashley, Hartley, Lee |
| -ham | hām | farm, homestead | Buckingham, Tottenham, Hampton |
| -worth | worþ | enclosure | Wentworth, Ainsworth, Worthington |
| -ing | -ingas | people of | Hastings, Buckingham, Washington |
| -ford | ford | river crossing | Bradford, Stamford |
| -shaw | sceaga | a wood, a thicket | Bradshaw, Shaw |
| -field | feld | open land | Field, Sheffield-type names |
| brad- | brād | broad | Bradley, Bradshaw, Bradford |
| stan- | stān | stone | Stanley, Stamford |
Good to know: the personal-name surnames follow the Anglo-Saxon two-part naming habit. Wulf (wolf) plus nōþ (daring) gives Wulfnoth and so Woolnough; æþel (noble) plus weard (guard) gives Aylward. The Germanic names table lists the meanings of each part, and our Viking cousins work exactly the same way, as the Viking surnames guide shows.
Surnames from Anglo-Saxon personal names
Godwin
Old English: Godwine. Meaning: God’s friend. Type: personal name. Variants: Godwin, Goodwin. Where: England-wide; Godwine was a top-five name in 1066.
The one with the best story. Earl Godwin of Wessex became one of the most powerful earls in England under Cnut and his successors, and his son became King Harold II. PASE counts 259 people called Godwine in Domesday, which made it the fourth most common name of 1066 and one of the few to keep being given after the Normans took over.
Woolnough
Old English: Wulfnōþ. Meaning: wolf + daring. Type: personal name. Variants: Woolnough, Woolner. Where: Mostly East Anglia.
Wulfnoth means wolf plus daring, and Godwin’s father was Wulfnoth Cild, a Sussex thegn (a landholding noble). Wiktionary links Woolnough and Woolner as the same name with different endings. If your family is from Norfolk or Suffolk, this is one to be properly pleased about: few English surnames carry a pre-Conquest name so visibly.
Aldred
Old English: Ealdred or Æthelred. Meaning: old + counsel, or noble + counsel (disputed). Type: personal name. Variants: Aldred, Eldred. Where: England.
Here is where the sources honestly disagree. Wikipedia’s Germanic names table puts Aldred under eald, old, as in Ealdred, an 11th-century archbishop of York. Wiktionary derives the surname from Æthelred instead. Both are real Old English names; your Aldreds could come from either.
Seward
Old English: Sigeweard or Sǣweard. Meaning: victory + guard, or sea + guard. Type: personal name. Variants: Seward, Siward. Where: England.
Two names in one. Sigeweard (victory guard) and Sǣweard (sea guard) both wore down to Seward. PASE has 94 Domesday men under Siward and 14 under Sæweard.
Elphick
Old English: Ælfhēah. Meaning: elf + high. Type: personal name. Variants: Elphick, Alphege. Where: Kent and Sussex.
Elphick is Ælfhēah, the name of St Alphege, archbishop of Canterbury, who was killed by Viking raiders in 1012. PASE counts 17 Domesday men called Ælfheah. Wiktionary places the surname’s roots in Kent or Sussex, first recorded as Elpheg in 1297.
Edwards
Old English: Ēadweard. Meaning: wealth + guardian. Type: personal name. Variants: Edward, Edwardes. Where: England-wide; 11th in Wales (0.93%).
Edward, Ēadweard, is wealth plus guardian, and it was one of the very few English first names still in use after the Conquest: PASE shows Edward among the lords of 1086 as well as the holders of 1066. Edwards, the son-of form, ranks 21st in England according to Wikipedia’s Edwards page, and 11th in Wales in the UCL figures.
Elgar
Old English: Ælfgār or Æthelgār. Meaning: elf + spear, or noble + spear. Type: personal name. Variants: Elgar, Algar. Where: England.
Ælfgar (elf spear) or Æthelgar (noble spear): Wiktionary gives both. PASE has 89 Domesday men called Ælfgar. The composer Edward Elgar is the bearer most people know.
Darwin
Old English: Dēorwine. Meaning: dear + friend. Type: personal name. Variants: Darwin, Derwin. Where: England.
Dēorwine is dear plus friend, the same wine (friend) that sits at the end of Godwin and Alwin. A rare survival, and most people meet it first in a biology class.
Old English job and nickname surnames
Smith
Old English: smiþ. Meaning: a worker in metal or wood. Type: occupation. Variants: Smyth, Smythe. Where: Top in England (1.26%) and Scotland (1.28%).
England’s and Scotland’s commonest surname. Bosworth-Toller defines smiþ as a worker in metals or in wood, so your Smith ancestor may have been a carpenter rather than a blacksmith. You can check every Old English word on this page in the Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.
Wright
Old English: wyrhta. Meaning: a maker, workman. Type: occupation. Variants: Wright, Write. Where: 10th commonest in England (0.32%).
Wyrhta meant any maker or workman. It survives on its own and inside Wainwright and Cartwright, and it is 10th in England.
Walker
Old English: wealcere. Meaning: a fuller of cloth. Type: occupation. Variants: Walker, Walkers. Where: 13th commonest in England (0.30%).
A fuller, who trod wet cloth to thicken it. Walker is 13th in England and turns up on our Scottish W surnames page too.
Stewart
Old English: stigweard. Meaning: steward of a household. Type: occupation. Variants: Stewart, Steward, Stuart. Where: 7th commonest in Scotland (0.73%).
The Scottish royal surname is Old English underneath. Stigweard meant the officer who ran a great household, and the High Stewards of Scotland turned the job title into a dynasty. Stewart is the 7th most common surname in Scotland. Our Scottish royal last names guide covers how it went from office to crown.
Hayward
Old English: hæg + weard. Meaning: guardian of the enclosures. Type: occupation. Variants: Hayward, Haywood (sometimes). Where: England.
The village officer who guarded the hedges and fences (hæg) so animals stayed out of the crops. A small job with a lasting name.
Leach
Old English: lǣce. Meaning: doctor, physician. Type: occupation. Variants: Leach, Leech. Where: England.
Lǣce meant a doctor. Wiktionary gives a second origin from læcc, a boggy stream, so a Leach may have healed people or simply lived somewhere damp. In Scotland, where dreich (grey and drizzly) counts as a season, the second seems more likely.
Brown
Old English: brūn. Meaning: brown, dark. Type: nickname. Variants: Brown, Browne. Where: 4th in England (0.56%), 2nd in Scotland (0.94%).
Brūn: brown, dark, dusky. The nickname for someone with dark hair or skin, it is 4th in England and 2nd in Scotland.
Reid
Old English: rēad. Meaning: red. Type: nickname. Variants: Read, Reed, Reid. Where: 12th commonest in Scotland (0.52%).
Reid is rēad, red, in its Scots spelling. In England the same name is Read or Reed. Twelfth in Scotland, it is one of the clearest Old English survivals north of the border.
Old English place and landscape surnames
Wood
Old English: wudu. Meaning: wood. Type: landscape. Variants: Wood, Atwood, Woods. Where: 18th commonest in England (0.27%).
Someone who lived by a wood. It sits 18th in England. Atwood and Underwood keep the extra words that once explained exactly where the house was.
Bradley
Old English: brād + lēah. Meaning: broad clearing. Type: place. Variants: Bradley. Where: Many places called Bradley.
Broad clearing. Because there are Bradleys in many counties, the surname started in lots of places at once, which is why it is common and spread out.
Washington
Old English: Hwæsingatūn (probably). Meaning: settlement of Hwæssa’s people. Type: place. Variants: Washington. Where: Washington, Tyne and Wear.
The place in Tyne and Wear, probably the settlement of Hwæssa’s people. Wiktionary dates the place name to 1096. It is a neat example of an -ing name: a group of people, their settlement, and centuries later a family name.
Tottenham
Old English: Tottan + hām. Meaning: Totta’s homestead. Type: place. Variants: Tottenham. Where: North London.
Totta’s homestead. The Society for Name Studies uses it as a textbook example of an Old English personal name hiding inside a place name, which is the same trick behind most -ham surnames.
How to tell if your surname is Old English
- Check the ending first. -ton, -ley, -ham, -worth, -ford and -field almost always mean an Old English place. Then find the place: there may be one or 20.
- Strip off -s and -son. Edwards is Edward; Edmunds is Edmund. If the first name underneath is Old English, so is the root.
- Look for a job or a colour. Smith, Wright, Walker, Webb, Brown, White, Green and Reid are Old English words that became surnames after 1066.
- Then check the trap names. Some names look English and are not, or have two origins. If you cannot rule out the second origin, keep both in your family notes.
- If you cannot find it, try the bigger lists. Our English surnames guide covers 150 names of every origin, and the types of English surname page shows how to classify yours.
Watch out for: Moore, Ward and Lamb. Wiktionary notes that Moore has converged from several origins, Irish ones included, that Irish Wards are often Mac an Bhaird, son of the poet, and that some Lambs are Lambert or Irish Ó Luain. Osborne and Osmond are Norse as much as English; the Norse place names guide covers the -by and -thorpe surnames that came with the Vikings. And Taylor, England’s third most common surname, is not Old English at all.
Quick list: all 88 Old English surnames
| Surname | Old English | Meaning | Variants | Type | Era | Where found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ainsworth | Ægen + worþ | Ægen’s enclosure | Ainsworth | Place | Place named before 1066 | Lancashire |
| Aldred | Ealdred or Æthelred | old + counsel, or noble + counsel (disputed) | Aldred, Eldred | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Allnutt | Æþelnōþ | noble + daring | Allnutt, Allnatt | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Ashley | æsc + lēah | ash-tree clearing | Ashley | Place | Place named before 1066 | Several places in England |
| Ashton | æsc + tūn | ash-tree settlement | Ashton | Place | Place named before 1066 | Lancashire, Cheshire and beyond |
| Aylmer | Æþelmǣr | noble + famous | Aylmer, Elmer | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Aylward | Æþelweard or Ælfweard | noble + guard, or elf + guard | Aylward, Ailward | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Baker | bæcere | baker | Baker, Baxter (the female form) | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England-wide |
| Bentley | beonet + lēah | clearing with bent-grass | Bentley | Place | Place named before 1066 | Several places |
| Bradford | brād + ford | broad ford | Bradford | Place | Place named before 1066 | Yorkshire and elsewhere |
| Bradley | brād + lēah | broad clearing | Bradley | Place | Place named before 1066 | Many places called Bradley |
| Bradshaw | brād + sceaga | broad thicket | Bradshaw | Place | Place named before 1066 | Northern England |
| Bridges | brycg | bridge | Bridge, Bridges, Brigg | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Brook | brōc | brook, stream | Brook, Brooks, Brookes | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Brown | brūn | brown, dark | Brown, Browne | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 4th in England (0.56%), 2nd in Scotland (0.94%) |
| Buckingham | Buccingahām | home of Bucca’s people | Buckingham | Place | Place named before 1066 | Buckinghamshire |
| Chapman | cēapmann | merchant, trader | Chapman | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Clifton | clif + tūn | settlement by a cliff or slope | Clifton | Place | Place named before 1066 | Many places in England |
| Cook | cōc | cook | Cook, Cooke | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Darwin | Dēorwine | dear + friend | Darwin, Derwin | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Edmunds | Ēadmund | wealth + protection | Edmonds, Edmunds | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England and Wales |
| Edwards | Ēadweard | wealth + guardian | Edward, Edwardes | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England-wide; 11th in Wales (0.93%) |
| Elgar | Ælfgār or Æthelgār | elf + spear, or noble + spear | Elgar, Algar | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Elphick | Ælfhēah | elf + high | Elphick, Alphege | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | Kent and Sussex |
| Elvey | Ælfwīg | elf + war | Elvey, Alvey | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Field | feld | open country, a plain | Field, Fields | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Fisher | fiscere | fisherman | Fisher, Fischer | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Fowler | fugelere | a bird-catcher | Fowler | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Fox | fox | fox | Fox, Foxe | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Freeman | frēomann | a free-born man | Freeman | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Godwin | Godwine | God’s friend | Godwin, Goodwin | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England-wide; Godwine was a top-five name in 1066 |
| Goodrich | Godrīc | good or godly ruler | Goodrich, Goodridge | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | Also a village in Herefordshire |
| Goodwin | Godwine or Gōdwine | good friend (gōd + wine) | Godwin, Goodwyn | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England-wide |
| Green | grēne | green, the village green | Green, Greene | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 16th commonest in England (0.28%) |
| Hall | heall | hall | Hall, Halle | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 17th commonest in England (0.28%) |
| Hampton | hām + tūn, or hēah + tūn | home farm, or high farm | Hampton | Place | Place named before 1066 | Many places in England |
| Hartley | heorot + lēah | stag clearing | Hartley | Place | Place named before 1066 | Several places |
| Hastings | Hæstingas | Hæsta’s people | Hastings | Place | Place named before 1066 | Sussex |
| Hayward | hæg + weard | guardian of the enclosures | Hayward, Haywood (sometimes) | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Hill | hyll | hill | Hill, Hills | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England-wide |
| Hilton | hyll + tūn | hill settlement | Hilton | Place | Place named before 1066 | England and Scotland |
| Holt | holt | a wood, grove, copse | Holt | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Hunt | hunta | hunter | Hunt, Hunter | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Knight | cniht | a boy, servant, later a knight | Knight | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Lamb | lamb | lamb | Lamb, Lambe | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England and Scotland |
| Langley | lang + lēah | long clearing | Langley | Place | Place named before 1066 | Many places in England |
| Leach | lǣce | doctor, physician | Leach, Leech | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Lee | lēah | woodland clearing | Lee, Leigh, Lea | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Little | lȳtel | little, small | Little, Lyttle | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England and Scotland |
| Long | lang | long, tall | Long, Lang | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England; Lang in Scotland |
| Marsh | mersc | marsh | Marsh, Marshe | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Moore | mōr | moor, waste ground | Moore, More, Moor | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England, Ireland |
| Morton | mōr + tūn | settlement by a moor or marsh | Morton, Moreton | Place | Place named before 1066 | Many places |
| Norton | norþ + tūn | north settlement | Norton | Place | Place named before 1066 | Dozens of places |
| Osborne | Ōsbeorn (Old Norse Ásbjǫrn) | god + bear | Osborne, Osborn, Osbourne | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England and Ireland |
| Osmond | Ōsmund (Old Norse Ásmundr) | god + protection | Osmond, Osmund | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Preston | prēost + tūn | priests’ settlement | Preston | Place | Place named before 1066 | Lancashire and many villages |
| Reeve | gerēfa | reeve, steward, local officer | Reeve, Reeves | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Reid | rēad | red | Read, Reed, Reid | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 12th commonest in Scotland (0.52%) |
| Salter | sealtere | salt-worker | Salter, Saltman | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Seward | Sigeweard or Sǣweard | victory + guard, or sea + guard | Seward, Siward | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Sharp | scearp | sharp, keen | Sharp, Sharpe | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Shaw | sceaga | a wood, a thicket | Shaw | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England and Scotland |
| Smith | smiþ | a worker in metal or wood | Smyth, Smythe | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | Top in England (1.26%) and Scotland (1.28%) |
| Stanley | stān + lēah | stony clearing | Stanley | Place | Place named before 1066 | Several places in England |
| Stewart | stigweard | steward of a household | Stewart, Steward, Stuart | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 7th commonest in Scotland (0.73%) |
| Sutton | sūþ + tūn | south settlement | Sutton | Place | Place named before 1066 | Dozens of places |
| Swift | swift | swift, fleet | Swift | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Thatcher | þæc (thatch) | roofer | Thatcher, Thacker | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Tottenham | Tottan + hām | Totta’s homestead | Tottenham | Place | Place named before 1066 | North London |
| Wainwright | wægnwyrhta | wagon maker | Wainwright | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | Northern England |
| Walker | wealcere | a fuller of cloth | Walker, Walkers | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 13th commonest in England (0.30%) |
| Ward | weard | guard, watchman | Ward, Warde | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England; also Irish Mac an Bhaird |
| Washington | Hwæsingatūn (probably) | settlement of Hwæssa’s people | Washington | Place | Place named before 1066 | Washington, Tyne and Wear |
| Webb | webba | a weaver | Webb, Webbe | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Webster | webbestre | a female weaver | Webster | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England and Scotland |
| Wells | wella | spring, well | Wells, Well | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | England |
| Wentworth | Wintra or winter + worþ | Wintra’s enclosure, or winter enclosure | Wentworth | Place | Place named before 1066 | Yorkshire |
| White | hwīt | white, fair | White, Whyte | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 14th commonest in England (0.30%) |
| Wolsey | Wulfsige | wolf + victory | Wolsey, Woolsey | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Wood | wudu | wood | Wood, Atwood, Woods | Landscape | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 18th commonest in England (0.27%) |
| Woolner | Wulfnōþ | wolf + daring | Woolnough | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Woolnough | Wulfnōþ | wolf + daring | Woolnough, Woolner | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | Mostly East Anglia |
| Worthington | Weorþ + -ing + tūn | settlement linked to a man called Weorth | Worthington | Place | Place named before 1066 | Leicestershire and Lancashire |
| Wright | wyrhta | a maker, workman | Wright, Write | Occupation | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 10th commonest in England (0.32%) |
| Wyatt | Wīgheard | war + hard, brave | Wyatt, Wiatt | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Wyman | Wīgmund | war + protection | Wyman, Wiman | Personal name | Name in use before 1066 | England |
| Young | geong (iung) | young | Young, Younge | Nickname | Old English word, surname after 1066 | 16th commonest in Scotland (0.42%) |
FAQ about Old English surnames
Did Anglo-Saxons have surnames?
Not hereditary ones. Anglo-Saxons usually had a single name, such as Godwine or Wulfric, sometimes with a byname describing them. Fixed family names grew up after the Norman Conquest, and by 1400 most English families had adopted one. Many of those surnames still used Old English words and names.
What are some Anglo-Saxon surnames?
Surnames built on Anglo-Saxon personal names include Godwin, Goodwin, Woolnough, Aldred, Seward, Elphick, Aylward, Elgar, Darwin and Edwards. Wider Old English surnames include Smith, Wright, Walker, Brown, White, Wood, Hall and Green, plus place names like Bradley, Ashton and Washington.
Is Smith an Old English surname?
Yes. It comes from Old English smiþ, which the Bosworth-Toller dictionary defines as a worker in metals or in wood. It is the commonest surname in England, with about 1.26 percent of people, and in Scotland, with about 1.28 percent, according to the UCL figures listed on Wikipedia.
What is the oldest English surname?
No single surname can claim it, because English surnames became hereditary gradually after 1066. The oldest roots are Anglo-Saxon personal names and place names, such as Godwin, Woolnough, Tottenham or Buckingham, which were in use centuries before they became family names.
Are Old English surnames found in Scotland?
Yes, especially in the south and east, where Northumbrian Old English became Scots. Smith, Brown, Young and Reid are among Scotland’s 20 commonest surnames, and the royal Stewart name comes from Old English stigweard, the officer who ran a great household.
Final thoughts on Old English surnames
If your surname ends in -ton, -ley or -ham, or it is a plain job or colour, the odds are high that it is Old English underneath. The truly rare ones are the surnames built on Anglo-Saxon first names, like Godwin, Woolnough and Elphick, because so few of those names survived the Normans long enough to be inherited.
For the names themselves, the people behind the surnames, our Viking names guide covers the Norse side of early England, and the Scottish occupational surnames page picks up the job names that crossed the border.
Sources
- PASE Domesday, Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (University of Oxford, King’s College London, University of Cambridge): people and names in Domesday Book
- Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online (entries for smiþ, wyrhta, wealcere, webba, stigweard, brūn, rēad and others)
- Wikipedia, Surname: history of hereditary surnames in England
- Wikipedia, List of most common surnames in Europe (UK figures from a UCL study)
- Wikipedia, List of generic forms in place names in the United Kingdom and Ireland
- Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, Personal names in England’s place-names
- Wikipedia, Germanic name: elements of Anglo-Saxon personal names
- Wiktionary surname entries (Woolnough, Godwin, Elphick, Aylward, Wyatt, Darwin and others)
