Tudor
A Welsh surname ultimately linked to the personal name Tudor, a Welsh form of Theodore, later made famous by the Tudor dynasty.
The #5,869 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 52,535 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Tudor comes from the Welsh personal name Tewdwr/Tudur, which older writers connected with Theodore. In that reading, the name ultimately goes back to Greek elements meaning ‘gift of God,’ though the surname itself entered use through Welsh naming tradition. As a surname, it began as a patronymic or identifier meaning ‘son of Tudor’ or ‘belonging to Tudor.’
History
The name is strongly associated with Wales and appears in medieval Welsh historical sources, where forms such as Tewdwr and Tudor occur early. It later became famous through the Tudor royal house, descended from Edmund Tudor, which helped spread the surname well beyond Wales. Historical surname dictionaries also note spellings such as Tuder.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century writers treated Tudor as the Welsh equivalent of Theodore, which is why the surname is often linked to the famous Tudor dynasty.
From the historical record
“Valley [v. under Tuddenham and Hope] TUDOR \ (Wel.-Gr.) the Wel. Tewdwr, a form TUDER J of Theodore, q.v. Ac y bu uarw Dyfynwal uab Tewdwr (And there died Dyvynwal, son of Tudor). — Brut y Tywysogion {Chron. ofthe\Welsh'\ Princes), A.D. 760. Tudworth”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)