Winslow
An English habitational surname from places called Winslow, probably meaning either “wine’s hill” or a “burial mound/hill.”
The #2,570 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,965 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Winslow is a habitational surname taken from places in Buckinghamshire and Herefordshire. The place-name is generally explained from Old English elements, either wine ‘friend’ + hlāw ‘hill, mound’ or a related interpretation involving a personal name plus ‘hill.’ Older writers also connected it with the idea of a burial mound or hill feature in the landscape. The surname therefore means, in origin, someone who came from one of these places.
History
The surname appears in medieval and later English records in forms such as Winesleg and Winslow. It was established as a local surname in England and later spread through migration to other English-speaking regions, including North America. As with many locational surnames, it could arise independently from more than one place of the same name.
Origin
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Fun fact
The name has attracted several etymologies over time, but the recurring idea in the older scholarship is that it is tied to a hill or mound rather than to the modern word “win.”
From the historical record
“WINSLOE "I (Eng.) Bel. to Winslow (Bucks : WINSLOW r Lat. charter dated A.D. 795 I^mei- hlauue ; Heref.)=WiNE'sHiLLor Burial- MouND [the genit. of O.E. wine, friend -f hlcew, hill, &c] WINSON (Eng.) i Win(n)'s Son : v. Winn. 2 a syncopated form of Winston, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)