Whitehurst
A habitational surname meaning someone who lived by a “white wood” or pale wooded hill.
The #4,774 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 41,655 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Whitehurst is a habitational surname from Old English elements meaning “white” plus hyrst, a wooded hill or copse. In surname dictionaries it is commonly explained as “dweller at the white wood” or “white grove.” The second element appears in many English place-names and surnames, often referring to a wooded rise rather than a forest in the modern sense.
History
The name is recorded in medieval England and was later treated by surname scholars as a locational byname from a place called Whitehurst or from a landscape feature with that meaning. It appears in English surname distribution lists in the 19th century, with concentrations noted in the Midlands and northern counties. The spelling has remained fairly stable, though minor variants and related “White-” surnames are common.
Origin
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Fun fact
Several 19th-century surname writers glossed Whitehurst in the same plain-English way: “white wood,” “white grove,” or “white hill of trees.”
From the historical record
“Soms. Subsidy-Roll, A.D. 1327. WHITEHURST (Eng.) Dweller at the White Wood [O.E. hwit -h hyrst, a wood] Cp. Blackhurst. WHITELAM 1 (Eng.) a nickname: White WHITLAM I Lamb [O.E. hwit -\- lamb] Alicia Whitlambe. — Yorks PoU-Tax, A.D. 1379.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)