Bostwick
A place-based surname, probably meaning “dwelling by the creek or harbor,” though older writers also tried linking it to a wood or boose-like roots.
The #7,393 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,580 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bostwick is generally treated as a local surname formed from an old place-name. In the cited 19th-century scholarship, it is explained as something like “house by the haven or creek,” from elements glossed as bos ‘house’ and wick ‘haven, creek, settlement.’ Another proposed explanation connects it with Dutch bosch ‘wood’ plus wick, but the place-name sense is the safer reading overall. The form may also reflect later spelling changes from an older British or regional place-name.
History
The surname appears in English and Anglo-American records, and by the 19th century it was already established enough to be treated as a recognizable local name. The sources show some uncertainty about the exact roots, but they agree that it is topographic or locational rather than occupational. In the United States the name is uncommon but well established, with a modest modern bearership.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century writers noticed Bostwick alongside other surnames beginning in Bos-, and some tried to explain it through both Celtic and Dutch place-name elements.
From the historical record
“elder trees. BOSTWICK. (Cor. Br.) Local. The house near the haven or creek ; from Bos, a house, and wick, a haven or creek. It may be from the Dutch Bosch, a wood, and wick, the town in the wood. BoswicJc, in the Cornish-British, is the dwelling near the harbor or village. BOSWELL. Local. A corruption of BosseviHe…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names