DeWeese
An American surname most likely derived from a Dutch place-name pattern, originally meaning someone from a farm or settlement called De Wees or De Wiese.
The #5,686 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 50,656 Americans shares it.
Etymology
DeWeese is most likely an Americanized spelling of a Dutch locational surname built from the article de plus a place-name element such as wees or wiese. In surname practice, names of this kind often meant "from the [named] place" or "at the meadow/fallow land," depending on the local dialect and original spelling. Because the form has been anglicized, the exact source-word is not certain, but the name clearly looks to a Dutch-language place-origin pattern.
History
The surname is found in the United States in several spelling forms, reflecting the usual American smoothing of Dutch names over time. It may have entered English-speaking records through immigration from Dutch-speaking communities, then stabilized in the distinctive capitalized form DeWeese. In modern usage it is established as a family name in the U.S., while the original European source may be harder to trace from the surviving spelling alone.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The capitalized middle W in DeWeese is a modern spelling convention, not part of the surname’s oldest form.