This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of the thwaites' or thwaite, i.e. the meadows, the clearings or clearing, frequently found in such compounds as Thistlethwaite, Cooperthwaite, Thornthwaite, Haverthwaite, or Postlethwaite, which are all North English in origin. Probably connected withwhittle, a knife. Middle English thwitel, a knife. Hence thwaite, a woodland clearing.

John del Thwaites, c. 1300. Writs of Parliament.

Thomas de Thwaytes. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Robertus del Twaytes, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1607. Samuel Thwaytes, of London: Register of the University of Oxford.

1718. Buried — John Thwaits, in the new vault: St. Michael, Cornhill.

(Scandinavian) belonging to Thwaite = the Clearing [Old Norse pueit, a clearing; prt. sing, of *þuíta (= Old English pwítan), to cut] Thwaite, Norf., was Thweit a.d. 1292.

“Meadow” in North of England.

Local. A piece of ground cleared of wood, from the Anglo—Saxon thweotan, to cut. In some places in England the word signifies a rivulet; marshy ground; also, a meadow.

Thwaite: the O.N. thveit, signifies an outlying paddock. Thwaites are mostly found in Cumberland, mainly on high ground, and seem to denote clearings. The compounds are numerous: Brathwaite (the broad thwaite), Thwaites, Applethwaite, Crossthwaite, Micklethwaite, Longthwaite, etc. Lilywhite is probably a corruption of Littlethwaite.

[Toft] (Dutch), an enclosed field near a farmhouse. The name is found in Iceland - Toptavellir, the fields in the plains. As an ending corrupted to toe, as Shillitoe or Sillitoe.

Whilst Thwaites is usually found in the West Riding, Thwaite is more characteristic of the North Riding, especially in the district of Bedale. Members of a Doncaster family of Thwaites filled the office of mayor of that town in 1561, 1582, 1583, 1584, 1587, and 1652 (M.). In the 16th and 17th centuries there was a family of Thwaits in Pontefract which supplied mayors to that town in 1530, 1590, 1597, and 1611 (M.). A Leeds family of Thwaites had property in Allerton - Gledhow in that parish during the 16th and 17th centuries, the last owner of this name being a Leeds alderman in the time of Cromwell (Th.). Colonel Thwaites was deputy - governor of the city of York in the stirring times of 1644 (D.). A family of Thwaites held part of the manor of Shirecliffe in the reign of Elizabeth (H. H.); and as far back as the times of Edward II. Marston was in the possession of a family of this name (D.). Thwaites is still a Doncaster name.