Woodruff
An English surname originally referring to a wood-reeve, a forester or bailiff in charge of woodland.
The #1,341 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,746 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Woodruff is generally explained as a variant of Woodreeve or Woodruffe, from Old English words meaning “wood” and “reeve” or “bailiff.” In that sense, it denoted a person who supervised woodland or acted as a forest officer. Some older writers also noted the herbal name woodruff, but the surname is usually treated as deriving from the office-name rather than the plant.
History
19th-century surname dictionaries commonly grouped Woodruff with Woodreave/Woodreeve and related forms such as Woodroffe and Woodrough. Harrison specifically glossed it as “Wood-Reeve” or “Forester,” and other works describe it as a corruption or variant of the title for a woods officer. The name appears chiefly in English records, especially in Midlands and other county forms where local pronunciation could shift reeve to rough, ruff, or roff.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Several older surname books explicitly connect Woodruff to the office of sheriff-like woodland officer by comparing it with the better-known word reeve, as in shire-reeve.
From the historical record
“WOODROUGH WOODRUFF WOODRUFFE / (Eng.) Wood-Reeve ; Wood- VBailiff; Forester [O.E. wudu -j- ge)refa, ge)raefd\ Woodreve. — the woodman, the forester of the Midland Counties. —”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)