Atwater Surname

79,813th
Most Common
surname in the World

Approximately 6,109 people bear this surname

Most prevalent in:
United States
Highest density in:
Trinidad and Tobago

Atwater Surname Definition:

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. the son of Walter.' Middle English Water, Old French Wauter and Watier.

'My name is Walter Whitmore. How now! why start'st thou? what! doth death affright? Suffolk. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death.

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Atwater Surname Distribution Map

PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States5,8491:61,9697,254
Canada1811:203,56719,858
Trinidad and Tobago381:35,8943,529
England61:9,286,343223,652
Germany61:13,417,576340,600
United Arab Emirates41:2,290,56860,372
Brazil31:71,358,111770,017
Philippines31:33,746,074302,898
Nigeria31:59,047,586507,603
Australia21:13,497,850222,987
United States Virgin Islands21:55,1886,229
Colombia21:23,887,03632,612
Chile21:8,808,23765,417
Panama11:3,912,25817,195
Morocco11:34,476,099111,471
Puerto Rico11:3,550,1399,109
Thailand11:70,638,3451,175,915
Iceland11:380,09011,096
Greece11:11,079,790145,225
China11:1,367,321,56651,149
Argentina11:42,743,414282,706
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England411:594,52130,269
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States1,8321:27,4123,369

Atwater (12) may also be a first name.

Atwater Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. the son of Walter.' Middle English Water, Old French Wauter and Watier.

'My name is Walter Whitmore. How now! why start'st thou? what! doth death affright? Suffolk. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. A cunning man did calculate my birth, And told me that by Water I should die.': 2 Henry VI, Act iv. sc. 1.

'The account of Wattare Taylor and Wyllyam Partrynge, benge churchewardens': Churchwardens Accounts, Ludlow, 1541, Cam. Soc.

Wauter de Cornwaille, 1313. Writs of Parliament.

Alicia Wartson, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Johannes Wauterson, 1379: ibid.

John Waterson, Yorkshire: Deposition from York Castle (Surtees Society).

1579- Judith, d. of Water Arksone, stranger: St. Dionis Backchurch (London).

1563. Baptised — William, son of Water Lancaster: St. Antholin (London).

— Buried — Water Right, servant to Richard Clarke: ibid.

1588. Margaret Watterson, of Cartmell: Lancashire Wills at Richmond.

Married — Edward Waterson and Jane Harrison: St. Michael, Cornhill.

A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the water'; compare Bywater, Attwood, Attwell, &c; v. Waters. This surname, having crossed the Atlantic, is more strongly represented in New York than London.

John Atte Water, Surrey, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

William Ate Wattere, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

John Ate Water, Suffolk, ibid.

Elias Atewater, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Thomas atte Watyr, C .R., 4 Henry V.

Robert Atte Watre: Cal. of Wills in Court of Husting. Calendar of Proceedings in Chancery, temp. Elizabeth I.

A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

Forms of 'Walters,' 'son of Walter.' which see. Alison Walters in Fishweicke, 1676 (Lauder). Sergeant-Major Watters distinguished himself in the first Great War and was promoted to captain.

The Surnames of Scotland (1946) by George Fraser Black (1866-1948)

(English) Dweller At the Water. [Middle English atte watere = Old English æt pœm wætere] Elias Atwatere.—Hundred Rolls

Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

(English) Dweller at a stream or lake.

Dictionary of American Family Names (1956) by Elsdon Coles Smith

In some dialects, the word water is applied to lakes and rivers, as Ullswater, Derwent-water, Black-water. Upon the adoption of surnames by the common people, a person who resided near such a place would be called William or John Atte-Water, still retained in Attwater; but on the omission of the preposition in the XV. century, the name was pluralized to Waters. The latinizations are De Aqua and Ad Aquam. See Water.

Patronymica Britannica (1860) by Mark Antony Lower

Local. At (the) water.

An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names (1857) by William Arthur

Local. A name given to one who navigated the waters, or resided near them.

An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names (1857) by William Arthur

Atwater Last Name Facts

Where Does The Last Name Atwater Come From? nationality or country of origin

The last name Atwater has its highest incidence in The United States. It can also be rendered as a variant:. Click here for further possible spellings of this name.

How Common Is The Last Name Atwater? popularity and diffusion

This surname is the 79,813th most frequent last name at a global level, borne by around 1 in 1,192,920 people. The surname is mostly found in The Americas, where 99 percent of Atwater live; 98 percent live in North America and 98 percent live in Anglo-North America. Atwater is also the 3,306,491st most common forename throughout the world, borne by 12 people.

Atwater is most common in The United States, where it is borne by 5,849 people, or 1 in 61,969. In The United States Atwater is most frequent in: North Carolina, where 10 percent reside, Georgia, where 10 percent reside and California, where 9 percent reside. Without taking into account The United States it occurs in 20 countries. It is also common in Canada, where 3 percent reside and Trinidad and Tobago, where 1 percent reside.

Atwater Family Population Trend historical fluctuation

The prevalency of Atwater has changed through the years. In The United States the number of people who held the Atwater surname grew 319 percent between 1880 and 2014 and in England it fell 85 percent between 1881 and 2014.

Atwater Last Name Statistics demography

In The United States those bearing the Atwater surname are 3.32% more likely to be registered with the Republican Party than the national average, with 50.09% being registered with the party.

The amount Atwater earn in different countries varies somewhat. In United States they earn 0.29% more than the national average, earning $43,272 USD per year and in Canada they earn 8.53% less than the national average, earning $45,444 CAD per year.

Phonetically Similar Names

SurnameSimilarityWorldwide IncidencePrevalency
Attwater93875/
Atwatter931/
Attwatter880/
Adwater8633/
Outwater80557/
Hotwater800/
Headwater751/
Outwatter750/
Odwater711/
Oudwater67121/
Atuhaitre631/
Otueterr531/

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Atwater Reference & Research

Atwater DNA Website - A web page dedicated to the genetic research of those who bear the surname and its variants.

Atwater FamilyTree DNA Project - A description of a group researching the paternal lines of men who bear the surname with the help of DNA analysis.

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Footnotes

  • Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
  • Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
  • Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
  • Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
  • Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
  • Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
  • Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to Atwater
  • To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on Family​Search, My​Heritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis