Watmuff Surname
Approximately 289 people bear this surname
Watmuff Surname Definition:
This surname is derived from a nickname. 'Wat's brother-in-law,' i.e. the brother-in-law of Walter, familiarly Wat. A very interesting North-English surname, and one of a small but distinct class (v. Muff and Hitchmough)compounded of the Christian name and maght or mauf, probably in general a brother-in-law, though other relationships are included.
Read More About This SurnameWatmuff Surname Distribution Map
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 149 | 1:373,947 | 26,392 |
| United States | 71 | 1:5,105,055 | 259,233 |
| Australia | 55 | 1:490,831 | 37,357 |
| Northern Ireland | 7 | 1:263,577 | 11,625 |
| Sweden | 4 | 1:2,461,689 | 157,534 |
| Germany | 1 | 1:80,505,459 | 560,955 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 1:4,528,323 | 55,372 |
| Spain | 1 | 1:46,752,036 | 156,870 |
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 133 | 1:183,273 | 15,057 |
Watmuff Surname Meaning
From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history
This surname is derived from a nickname. 'Wat's brother-in-law,' i.e. the brother-in-law of Walter, familiarly Wat. A very interesting North-English surname, and one of a small but distinct class (v. Muff and Hitchmough)compounded of the Christian name and maght or mauf, probably in general a brother-in-law, though other relationships are included. 'Maug, a brother-in-law. North E.' (Halliwell). 'Mauf, Maugh, or Meaugh, a brother-in-law' (Brockett). 'Mow, husbondys syster, or wyfys systyr, or syster-in-lawe' (Promptorium Parvulorum). 'Mauf denotes a brother-in-law. N. of E.' (Grose). 'Anglo-Saxon, mag or mag, the guttural sound being changed into that off, as in laugh' (Jamieson). Only a few of these compounds have come down to us in the form of surnames, Watmough and its variants being the prominent instance. The Yorkshire Poll Tax, however, has several others, which although now obsolete are uncontrovertible evidence of the former familiarity of such titles.
William Barnmawe, the child's brotherin-law, Yorkshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.
With the above we must compare the Yorkshire Barnfather (the child's father).
Robert Susannemagh, Fines Roll, 10 Edward I.
Johannes Elysmagh (Ellis's brother-in. law): Poll Tax of Yorkshire.
Willelmus Hudmagh (Richard's brother-in-law): ibid.
Ricardus Gepmouth (Geoffrey's brother-in-law): ibid.
Johannes Tailliourmoghe (the tailor's brother-in-law), ibid.
Coming to Watmough we find: Robertus Watmaghe (Walter's brotherin-law): ibid.
Later we find it as Watmouth (now Watmuff):Stolen from Fore bears
Myles Watmough, vicar of Medomsley, 1583: History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham.
Hugo Watmouth, rector of Thornton-in-Craven, 1599: Whitaker's Craven.
The modern variant Whatmough is imitative. With this class of surname compare.
William Gamelstepsone (the stepson of Gamel), 35 Edward I: Calendarium Genealogicum: Henry III-Edward I.
Henricus Parson-cosyn, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.
Thomas Viker-cosyn, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.
1581. Hugh Watmoughe, Yorkshire: Register of the University of Oxford.
I am glad to find that this most interesting North-country name has reached America.
(Teutonic) Wat’s Relative, more specif. Brother-in-Law [v. Watt; and + North. English mough, maugh, brother-in-law, from Old Norse mág-r, brother-in- law, father-in-law, son-in-law = Old English magu, mága, kinsman, son] Robertus Watsoun de Yselye, A.D. 1537-8.—Coldstream Chartulary, p. 86.
The same as Watmore, Whitmore, Whittemore; from Whitmore or Whittimere, a parish co. Stafford.
Watmuff Demographics
Average Watmuff Salary in
United States
$38,343 USD
Per year
Average Salary in
United States
$43,149 USD
Per year
View the highest/lowest earning families in The United States
Watmuff Last Name Facts
Where Does The Last Name Watmuff Come From? nationality or country of origin
The surname Watmuff occurs most in England. It may occur as:. Click here for other potential spellings of this surname.
How Common Is The Last Name Watmuff? popularity and diffusion
The surname is the 917,199th most commonly held last name throughout the world, held by around 1 in 25,216,422 people. The last name occurs predominantly in Europe, where 56 percent of Watmuff live; 55 percent live in Northern Europe and 54 percent live in British Isles.
Watmuff is most frequently used in England, where it is held by 149 people, or 1 in 373,947. In England it is most prevalent in: West Yorkshire, where 69 percent live, North Yorkshire, where 8 percent live and Cambridgeshire, where 3 percent live. Not including England it exists in 7 countries. It is also common in The United States, where 25 percent live and Australia, where 19 percent live.
Watmuff Family Population Trend historical fluctuation
The prevalency of Watmuff has changed through the years. In England the number of people carrying the Watmuff last name grew 112 percent between 1881 and 2014.
Watmuff Last Name Statistics demography
In The United States those bearing the Watmuff surname are 4.66% more likely to be registered Democrats than the national average, with 57.89% registered to vote for the political party.
Watmuff earn somewhat less than the average income. In United States they earn 11.14% less than the national average, earning $38,343 USD per year.
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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 Watmuff
- To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on FamilySearch, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis