This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the wood,' from residence thereby. Common to every mediaeval register all over the country. With Wode, compare Wodehouse.

Andrew ate Wode. Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard de la Wode, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Elias in le Wode, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Walter de la Wode, Herefordshire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Robertas del Wodde, Webster, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Thomas del Wode, smythe, 1379: ibid.

Robertas del Wode, 1379: ibid.

Modern instances are needless.

Local, from residence near a wood (Old English wudu). The name appears first in record in the Latinized form de Bosco (see Boyce ) There is an Old English personal name, Wuda, from which the name might be derived. This became in ME. Wode, and later Wood, but the local derivation is most probable for the name in Scotland. William Wod was a witness to the valuation of Kilravock and Easter Geddes in 1295 (Cau ror, p. 3; Rose, p. 30). In 1370 John Wode complained of having been plundered by wreckers (Bain, IV, 164). Ade Wood in Garvald and Roger Wode in Louchurde were tenants under Douglas, 1376 (RHM., I, p. Ivii; II, p, 16). A horse was stolen from Adam dictus Wode, husbandman of the bishop of Moray, 1398 (REM., p. 212), and Hugo o' the Wode, 'scocheman,' had a royal pardon, 1407 (Bain, IV, 734). William de le Wod is in record, 1413 (CDE., 21). Thomas Wod, a witness in Newbattle, 1458 (Neubotle, p. 246). Patrick of Wod witnessed an instrument of sasine, 1476, and Thom of Wod witnessed a declaration by John of Roule, 1479 (Home, 23, 25). John Vode was a friar preacher in Aberdeen, 1486 (REA., II, p. 300), and Alexander Woyd was a tenant under the bishop of Glasgow, 1513 (Rental). Vod and Void 1526, Voud and Voude 1520, Vould 1522, Wodde 1491, Wode (of Largo) 1506, Woid 1567, Woide 1481.

(English) 1 Dweller at a Wood [Middle English wode, Old English wudu] Richard de la Wode.—Hundred Rolls John atte Wode.—Cal. Inq. P.M.

2 Frenzied, Wild [Early Modern English wood(e, Middle English wood, wod(e, Old English wód] Tltanne [then] wolde he speke, and crie as he were wood.—Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 636.

. . . what Rage, what Furyes woode?— Googe, Eglogs (1563), IV.

And heere am I, and wood within this wood.—Mids. Night's Dream (ed. 1623), II. i. 192.

(English) Dweller in, or near, a grove or dense growth of trees.

From residence near one. It is often pluralized to Woods; and Attwood and Bywood are other forms of the same name. Its commonest medieval spelling is Atte-Wode, afterwards softened to A'Wood. Almost every considerable wood surnamed a family, and hence the commonness of the appellation, amounting in the Lond. Direct, in its various forms to more than 300 traders. This surname is found so early as Domesday in the form of De Silva. Suffolk. The forms De la Wode, In le Wode, and Ate Wode, are found in H.R.

Originally de Bosco-they bear an oak tree in their arms.

A surname very ancient in Scotland, first called De Bosco. The family bore trees in their coat of arms.

Generally local English, but in some cases a translation from De Bosco or Boys, of Normandy.

From the Old Norse, Uðr; from the Danish, Uhde; from the Frisian, Udo, Ude; in the Domesday Book, Udi; a personal name.

Wood: becomes sometimes in combination Hood, sometimes Good, as Thoroughgood is Thorolf's-wood.

Wood. —This name has established itself in the greater number of the English counties; but its home, par excellence, is in the region comprised by Yorkshire, Cheshire, and the northern midland counties of Derbyshire, Notts, Staffordshire, and Leicestershire. It has, however, also an independent and important home in the south - east of England in Kent and Sussex. Except in Devonshire, it cannot be said to be at all frequent in the south - western counties. In the extreme north of England it is fairly represented; but it has crossed the border in scanty numbers, and though scattered about Scotland it has obtained no great hold. It is supplemented by Woods in Lancashire, Norfolk, Suffolk, etc.

Wood is one of many local surnames which derive from a particular geographical feature of a neighbourhood. Other common examples are Hill, Moore, Field, and so on. Until long after the Norman Conquest much of the English country­side was wooded, which accounts for the popularity of the name. An early usage of the name Wood (or Woods) comes in the form ‘ate Wode’, describing a person who lived ‘at the wood’. To the Old English ‘ate’ was later added the definitive article in the dative form ‘then’or ‘ten’, producing the Middle English ‘atten’. This is retained in such names as Attenborough.

In the early years of the Norman Conquest surnames were given more as a form of description than as an actual name as we know it. Thus we find in the 1327 Subsidy Rolls for Somerset one William Wodeward, who was literally keeper or ward of the wood. However, by 1 333 he was recorded merely as William in the Wode. Later still his descendants would become simply Wood.

One of the earliest mentions of the name Wood (in its original form) is in the 1273 Hundred Rolls for Oxford. Here there appear two Woods-Arthur ate Wode (at the wood) and Richard de la Wode. The French prepositions show the Norman influence on the language. The extreme Frenchified form still persists in the name Dubois (of the wood) which, despite its foreignness and popularity to this day across the Channel, is in England a name of extreme antiquity. On this side of the Channel the name dates from the centuries immediately following the Norman Conquest. By the thirteenth century these names were becoming increasingly anglicised, and the descendants of Richard de la Wode would almost certainly soon have become Richard ate Wode, and then either Attwood or plain Wood.

By the beginning of the fourteenth century Wood was prevalent as a family name all over England, and by then those with the name often had little to do with any actual woods. By this time Woods was a well-known family name except amongst the famous Surrey Woolmakers who operated from the woolmaking towns of Godaiming, Wonersh and Farnham.

There are numerous surnames derived from the common root Wood, many of them from place names. These include not only the obvious Blackwood, Greenwood, Woodman and Woodward, but also several more obscure forms. Woodard, for instance, derives from wood-herd meaning a man who looked after animals in the woods. (In medieval times pigs were often grazed in woods.) However, not all similar Wood- related names derive from this common source. Some derive from Woader, meaning a dyer who used the dye woad (which the Ancient Britons used to paint themselves with before going into battle). Woad was a very popular blue dye made from a herb known in Anglo-Saxon as ‘wad’. The name Wodester (from which we get the fine old Wodehousian name Wooster) also derives from this source. The name Wodehouse (or Woodhouse) meant a man who lived in a house in the woods (not a man who lived in a wooden house, since almost all houses were made of wood in those days). Yet Woodhouse was not a general name. It referred to certain distinct places, located chiefly in West Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. In rare cases, however, this name derived from the Old English word ‘woodwose’ which means ‘a faun, satyr or troll’, and often denoted a ‘wild man’. (It is likely that the phrase ‘a wild man of the woods’ originates from an early popular muddling of these words.) There is also another similar rare derivation of the primary name Wood. In Old English the word ‘wode’ (or ‘wood’) also meant ‘mad or frantic’. That is what Shakespeare means when he writes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream of someone being ‘wood within his wood’.

The earliest reference is to one Adam le Wode who appears in the 1221 Assize Rolls for Worcestershire.

‘Wood’s half-pence’ was named for William Wood, English ironmaster who purchased the right to coin half-pences and farthings for Ireland in 1722. His excessive profits led to a new Irish tax, prompting satirist Jonathan Swift’s Drapier’s Letters which spearheaded opposition and soon resulted in the patent being revoked.

The creator of the London ‘Proms’ was Sir Henry Wood (1867—1944). These promenade concerts, intended to bring classical music to a wider audience of young people, are an annual event, running nightly during the late summer, usually at the Albert Hall. These concerts started in 1897, and were conducted by Henry Wood every year from then on until his death.

The architecture of Georgian Bath is largely the work of John Wood (1704—54). His elegant Palladian designs for the Royal Crescent, Circus and parades were constructed in distinctive yellow Bath stone supplied by his patron, Ralph Allen.

The pay-as-you-earn income-tax scheme was devised by English statesman Sir Kingsley Wood.

British-born composer Haydn Wood is best remembered as composer of the popular song Roses of Picardy. He also wrote a string of music-hall hits, before concentrating on serious compositions after his Fantasy String Quartet won an important chamber-music prize.

As a geographic descriptive surname Woods are predictably thick on the ground. The United Kingdom alone has 122 place names which range from Wood Dalling to Woodyates and include such exotics as Woodside of Arbedie and Woodstock Slop. Canada has 17 Wood-related towns, while the United States has 63 including no fewer than 6 Woodstocks. South Africa and Australia each have 2, while New Zealand and Ireland each have 3, and Singapore has a Woodlands. Geographic named features are very common.

With about 172,000 namesakes Wood is the 22nd most popular surname in England and Wales. There are over 12,000 Woods in Scotland where it is 54th in popularity. Wood is notably popular in and around Bradford where an estimated one in about 155 families bears the name. In descending numerical order Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield are other Wood strongholds. Around the world Woods are most common in Sydney (one in 618 families), Auckland (one in 647) and Wellington (one in 723). The United States has more Woods than the entire population of Plymouth-an estimated total of just over 271,000 makes this their 62nd most popular surname.