Howarth
A northern English surname that usually points to someone from a place called Howarth or a similar local place-name.
The #7,774 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 72,323 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most historical surname dictionaries treat Howarth as a local surname, referring to a person from Howarth, an estate or place in the Rochdale area of Lancashire. The place-name itself is usually explained from northern dialect and Old Norse elements, though older writers sometimes tied it more loosely to words for a hill or cairn. The name is closely mixed with Haworth and Howorth in the records, so spellings were not always stable.
History
The surname is well attested in medieval and early modern Yorkshire and Lancashire records, where it appears in several spellings including Howarth, Haworth, and Howorth. Because these forms were often interchanged by scribes, families can be difficult to separate cleanly in older sources. The name later spread beyond northern England and is now found more widely in English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname scholars specifically warned that Howarth and Haworth were “inextricably mixed” in the historical records.
From the historical record
“Andreas Otes.—Hund. Rolls, A.D. 1274. Otes de Howarth. — ' YorksPoll-Tax, A.D. 1379. U est Otes et li quens [comte] Berengers? — Im Chanson de Roland, 2405.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)