Gatewood
A surname built from the words “gate” and “wood,” likely originally pointing to someone who lived by a gate near a wood or a wooded gateway.
The #4,242 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,936 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Gatewood is an English surname formed from two common Old English elements: gate, meaning a road, opening, or gateway, and wood, meaning a forest or wooded place. Taken literally, it suggests a “gate by the wood” or a person associated with such a place. Surnames of this type often began as local identifiers for someone who lived near a recognizable landscape feature.
History
The name appears in English-speaking records as a fairly uncommon surname and was later carried to North America. Because it is rare, it does not have the long, heavily documented history of some older English surnames, and its exact origin may vary by family line. In the United States it is most common in the South and Midwest today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Its structure is completely transparent in English, which makes it one of those surnames people can often understand at a glance even when they have never seen it before.
From the historical record
“Sir F. Heygate is a member of the British Parlia- ment, 1859. Mr. AVooDGATEs was married (" Galig- nani," Oct. 20, 1859). Mr. Gatewood is an attorney at Des Arc, Ark. Mr. Latch, of Spreadeagle, sub- scribed for Agassiz's work. Mr. Sill is a graduate of Yale. In L. 601 is a deed of Mr. Sellars. Mr. Plank lives at…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)