Snowden
A habitational surname meaning someone from a snowy place or a place called Snowdon/Snowden.
The #3,233 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,638 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is generally taken from a place-name built from Old English elements meaning "snow" and "hill" or "down"—that is, a snowy hill or a hill associated with snow. In the historical record, spellings with -don and -den often vary, and surname forms such as Snowden can reflect that kind of local pronunciation and spelling shift. The surname therefore points to residence near, or origin from, a place called Snowden or Snowdon rather than to the modern word "snowden" itself.
History
Historical surname dictionaries treat Snowden as a fairly common English local surname, and one note specifically connects it with English places called Snowden, rather than with the Welsh mountain alone. Medieval and early modern records show several spelling forms, including Snowdin and Snodden, alongside Snowden. The name later spread more widely in Britain and then to North America through migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname writers explicitly warned not to assume every Snowden family came from Wales; several English place-names can explain it just as well.
From the historical record
“mod. orig. SNOWDEN \ (Eng.) Dweller at the Snow SNOWDON J Hill [O.E. sndw + diin] John Snowdone. — Lay Subs. RolHSoma.), A.D. 1327. There are hamlets called Upper and Lower Snowden in W. Yorks, Snowden Close in Cumb., and a Snowdon Pool in Salop. The (unstressed) suff. -don is freq. mutated to -den. The first element.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)