Fenwick
A northern English locational surname meaning “dweller by the fen farm or village.”
The #7,254 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,162 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Fenwick is a habitational surname from places in northern England, especially in Northumberland and Yorkshire. It is usually explained as combining Old English fen “marsh, fen” with wic “dwelling, farm, settlement, or trading place,” giving the sense “fen-side settlement” or “farm by the marsh.” Older writers sometimes connected the name specifically with an ancestral stronghold near Stamfordham in Northumberland.
History
The name is strongly associated with the Fenwicks of Northumberland, a noted border family in medieval and later records. Bardsley and Lower both treat it as a local surname, and Lower remarks on the family’s prominence in border times and their alliance with the Percies. The surname also spread beyond its northern core through migration, and variant spellings and pronunciations reflect local speech.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In some dialects, the initial F in Fenwick could be weakened or lost in pronunciation, which helped produce spellings like Fennick and forms that look quite different on paper.
From the historical record
“of the name in the XIV. cent. FENWICK. "The Fenwykes of Nor- thumberland, ["iusignis et illustris Fen- wickorum progenies."] are of Saxon origin, and take their cognomen from their ancient fastness in the fenn)' lauds in the vicinity of Stamfordham." Slogans of the North, p. 11 . In ' border ' times they formed a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom