Beckwith
A place-based surname from Yorkshire, probably meaning “the farm or settlement by the brook.”
The #3,020 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,997 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Beckwith is usually explained as a habitational surname from Beckwith, a place in Yorkshire. The first element is from Old English or Old Norse beck, meaning “brook” or “stream,” while the second element is the common place-name ending -with, which some older writers connected with a wooded place or settlement. In practice, the name most likely meant something like “brook-side dwelling” or “settlement by the stream.”
History
Historical sources place the name strongly in Yorkshire, and later genealogists noted that many prominent bearers came from that county. It was also carried to North America fairly early: one Bardsley citation mentions a Robert Beckwith emigrating in 1635. Some older works repeat a tradition that the family had earlier been known as Malbisse or a similar Norman form, but that story is not certain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century source specifically calls Beckwith a Yorkshire place-name surname and links it to a hamlet in that county.
From the historical record
“a variant of wortA ; v. Wort hi. This surname is strongly established in Boston tU.S.). ' Robert Beckwith, aged ai, went out in 1635 in the Transport, bound for Virginia' (V. Hotten'a Lists of Emigrants, p. 103).”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances