Warwick
A surname taken from the English place-name Warwick, originally meaning the settlement or fortified place by the weir or river camp.
The #6,307 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 57,059 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Warwick is a habitational surname from the English town of Warwick in Warwickshire. Early forms point back to Old English elements usually explained as a personal name plus -wic, meaning a settlement, camp, or fortified place; older scholarship also connected the first element with a word meaning a weir or possibly a family or tribal name. The medieval spellings vary widely, but the name clearly developed from the place-name rather than from a personal nickname.
History
The surname appears in medieval records in forms such as Warewic and Warwike, and was borne by families connected with Warwickshire and also by some who took their name from other places called Warwick or Warthwick. Lower notes a Cumberland branch, while Harrison links the name primarily to the Warwickshire place-name and its very early spellings. In later centuries the surname spread beyond the original locality and survives in England and abroad.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Warwick’s medieval spellings were so fluid that even the first element of the name was debated by early etymologists, showing how hard English place-name origins can be to pin down.
From the historical record
“fusion with Wharton. WARWICK \(Eng.) i Bel. to Warwick WARWICKE J .(Warw.), 13th cent. Warewyk, Warewyck, 12th cent. Warewic, Domes- day Warwic, A.-Sax. Chron. a.d. 914-915 Wckrinc wlc, 'set Wdzring wicum'; Latin charter dated A.D. 710, but written cen- turies later, 'in plaga Warewicensi ('Cart. Sax.' no. 127)…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)