Retained profile for the former
Attwood One-Name Study
This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.
The surnames 'Attwood' and 'Atwood' have their origins (it would appear) in the Home and Midland counties of England, but now occur in most of the United Kingdom's former colonies and in particular the USA, with one or two appearances in other countries. This study is concerned with the collection of all occurrences of the surname worldwide. The study is relatively new, I have been collecting the data for a number of years but have only relatively recently commenced the One Name Study in ernest and am making progress (albeit slowly) in 'harvesting' data.
Some documented variations in spelling are Attwood, Atte-Wode, Atwood, Atwode, Attewode Attwode, Attewoode, Atwod, Atwud, Atud , Attwool, de Bois, deBoys, (French) and de Bosco (Latin) and many more!
The surname, Attwood is derived from a locative medieval bye-name, i.e. originating from a place name, such as -hill, -ford, -brook -well and of course -wood. The name would therefore appear to mean, 'dweller at or near a wood'. The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford University Press, 1997) gives the following definition: 'Attwood, Atwood: Attewode 1243...Robert Atwode 1457...'Dweller by the wood' OE wudu.' The name is made up of the most common preposition at, (Old English ǽt) which coalesced with the definite article the, to form the obsolete preposition atte, (Middle English) together with the Old English wudu, wiodu, wudu, wude, wode, wodd, woode, uud etc. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 Clarendon Press). The surname Atte Wode may be transcribed as de Bois (or de Boys) or de Bosco. There is therefore scope for further variation resulting from abbreviation, misspelling or an imprecise understanding of the language by the scribe, e.g. Joh Boys, 1357 (quoted in Nash's Worcestershire, 1799) and the Abbot of Evesham Abbey. William de Boys, 1345-1367.From: 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Abbey of Evesham', A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2 (1971), pp. 112-27.
Name frequency
In 1881 the enumerators recorded that there were 3588 individuals with the name Attwood/Atwood living in the UK in 45 Counties. Work on establishing frequency from other sources is in progress.
Indexes to all UK census's. Work on General Record Office indexes is in progress.
For more information and my small database of notable Attwoods and Atwoods visit my website at Attwood Family History
Occurrences of the surname Attwood in the Guild Indexes
Modern Newspaper Index 5
Marriages of the World (public) 18
Marriage Index 1837-1945* 754
Probate Index* 27
World Wide Marriages Index* 16
The Inscriptions Index* 3
BMD Index* 227
Members' Data Stores in which the name Attwood appears* 27