Townes
A surname that usually began as a locational name meaning “of the town” or “from the village.”
The #6,669 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 60,933 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Townes is generally understood as a variant of Towns, built on Middle English town, from Old English tun, meaning an enclosed settlement, farmstead, or village. In surname use, it likely started as a descriptive locational label for someone who lived in or came from the town, as opposed to the outlying countryside. The final -s is a common English surname ending, often marking association or origin rather than possession.
History
The form is part of a wider family of English surnames based on place of residence, and it appears in records alongside spellings such as Towns and Town. Over time, the surname spread through ordinary English migration and was carried to North America and other English-speaking regions. The historical excerpts provided do not give a specific family origin, but they support the broader idea that town-based names were common and long-lived.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name is not related to the modern idea of “downtown” or a town government; it simply points back to the old word for a settlement or enclosed homestead.
From the historical record
“Hath in his cellar, as men say, Two townes full of lovedrink. Thus have arisen such words as ' tunnel ' or ' tun-dish,' the vessel with broad rim and narrow neck, used for transferring the wine from cask to bottle. That our nomenclature should possess tokens of all this was”
— English Surnames: their sources and significations