Greenwood
A topographic surname for someone who lived by or in a green wood or wooded place.
The #1,422 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,364 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Greenwood is an English surname built from green and wood, literally meaning “green wood” or “the green-wood.” It was originally a topographic name for someone who lived near a wooded tract, especially one noted for its greenery, shade, or use as common woodland. Some early writers also linked it with the phrase “the merry greenwood,” the familiar old term for a pleasant forest or sylvan district.
History
The name is well established in England, especially in the north, and appears in medieval records in forms such as de Greenwood. 19th-century surname writers treated it as a straightforward local or topographic name rather than a name from a single fixed village. It later spread widely across Britain and into North America through ordinary English migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Victorian surname writers sometimes described Greenwood as a classic “merrie greenwood” name, evoking the old romance image of a leafy forest home.
From the historical record
“heritance," B.L.G. GREENWOOD. I find no specific locality called ]>y this name ; but it is quite probable that in old times many a sjdvan district gave a name of distinction to lovers of "vert and venison," whose abode was " the merrie green-wood." GREER. See Gregory. GREG. See Gregory. Gregg of Nor- clifte Hall…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Greenwood
- Mason Greenwood (b. 2001)
- Jonny Greenwood (b. 1971)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.