Woodland
A locational surname for someone who came from, or lived by, a woodland or wooded place.
The #7,758 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 72,137 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Woodland is a straightforward English place-and-landscape surname. The name comes from Old English wudu 'wood' and land 'land', with Middle English forms such as wodeland and woodland. In the historical surname books, it is explained as a dwelling-name for someone living at or near a woodland or from a place called Woodland or Woodlands.
History
19th-century surname dictionaries note many English place-names called Woodland in counties such as Devon, Durham, Lancashire, and Derby, which helped generate the surname. It appears in records as an established English family name by the early modern period, and it remained relatively uncommon compared with simpler surnames like Wood or Woods. The name is also found in American records through later migration from Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same root pair behind Woodland also gave rise to a wide range of English surnames and place-names built on wood-, woods-, and woodlands imagery.
From the historical record
“WOODINGTON for Waddington, q.v. WOODLAND 1 (Eng.)Bel.toWoodland(s;or WOODLANDS J Dweller at the Woodland(s [M.E. wodeland, O.E. wuduland] WOODLEIGH 1 (Eng.) Bel. to Woodleigh, or WOODLEY J Woodley ; or Dweller at the Wood-Lea [O.E. wudu + ledh (M.E. legh,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)