Winder
A surname that usually points either to someone from a place called Winder or Windermere, or to an occupational name for a thread winder/twister.
The #6,192 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 55,861 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Winder has two main explanations in the older surname books. One is locational: it may come from places named Winder in Cumberland and Westmorland, or from the Windermere area, with the name linked to a bend or winding in the landscape. The other is occupational: it may come from Middle English windere, meaning a winder or twister of thread, from the verb winden, 'to wind.'
History
The surname appears in medieval records in forms such as le Windere, which supports an early English origin. Different authors have leaned either toward a place-name source or an occupational one, and both explanations remained in circulation in the 19th-century literature. The name is especially associated in those sources with Cumberland and Westmorland.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One historical note links the Cumberland form to Wynder in the 13th century, showing how spelling could shift quite a bit over time.
From the historical record
“WIN DEM ER for Windermere, q.v. WINDER (Eng.) i Winder (occup.) [M.E. windere ; f. M.E. winden, O.E. windan, to wind] Richard le Windere. — Hund. Rolls- 2 Bel. to Winder ; or Dweller at a Winding (as a valley) [O.E. ge)wiiid + the agent, suff. -ere] The Cumberland Winder was Wynder in the 13th cent.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)