Smallwood
A habitational surname for someone who lived near or came from a small wood or a place called Smallwood.
The #1,926 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,495 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained as a locational name from a place called Smallwood, especially the township in Astbury, Cheshire. The place-name is straightforwardly descriptive: 'small' plus 'wood,' meaning a little wood or woodland. In surname use, it would originally have identified someone who lived there or had moved away from it.
History
The historical excerpts support the Cheshire place-name explanation and show the surname in English records by the 16th and 17th centuries, including bearers in Cheshire and nearby counties. It later spread more widely in Britain and, through migration, into North America. The modern surname is therefore best understood as a place-based English family name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley specifically glossed Smallwood as a local surname from the township of Smallwood in Cheshire.
From the historical record
“ibid. p. 146. Randle Smallwood, of Lower WithlDS- «n,i67J!lbiA ' Still earlier we find the entries : I amea Smallwood. of Sniillwo”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances