Underwood
A topographic surname for someone who lived under or beside a wood.
The #588 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,411 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Underwood comes from Old English under, meaning “under” or “below,” and wudu, “wood” (in the dative form wuda). The name was applied to someone living at the foot of, or beneath, a wood or wooded slope. Medieval records show forms such as John Underwode and Adam Undirwode.
History
The surname is well attested in medieval English records, including 13th-century examples from the Hundred Rolls and other local documents. It belongs to a common class of English topographic surnames formed from a person’s place of residence. The name later spread widely in England and then to the English-speaking world, especially through ordinary population movement rather than a single family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source notes an Underwood township in Derbyshire and gives its medieval Latinized form as Sub-Bosco, literally “under the wood.”
From the historical record
“William Underhiil.— ffM«d. Rolls. UNDERWOOD (Eng.) Dweller Under the Wood [O.E. under ; wudu, dat. wuda] John Underwode. — Hund. Rolls, A.D. 1274. Adam Undirwode. — Vale Royal Ledger-Bk., A.D. 1280. UNDRELLfor Underhill, q.v. UNETT, i6th cent. Unet, is app. the O.Scand.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)