Blackwood
A habitational surname meaning “from the black wood” or a place so named.
The #4,213 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,725 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Blackwood is a locational surname built from the elements black + wood, referring to a dark woodland or a place called Blackwood. The name was applied to people from lands or estates bearing that name, especially in Scotland. Older writers also note that the family of Baron Dufferin and Claneboye took the name from Blackwood lands in Scotland.
History
The surname is strongly associated with Scotland and Ulster, where it appears in the history of families connected with the lands called Blackwood. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century surname writers mention a Blackwood family in connection with Baron Dufferin and note a Blackwood Hills locality in Dumfries. The name later spread more widely through Britain, Ireland, and the English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older surname books, Blackwood is sometimes discussed alongside other “black” place-names such as Blackburn and Blackwell, all of them based on simple landscape description.
From the historical record
“laud. BLACKWOOD. Lord D ufterin descends from a Scottish family. Adam B. was one of the privy-council to Mary, Queen of Scots. I find no locality of this name in North Britain, except the Blackwood Hills, CO. Dumfries. BLADE. Ferguson thinks from O. Norse hlcydi, implying bash fulness. BLADON. A parish in co. Oxon.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom