Drews

DROOZ (rhymes with "shoes")

A surname usually from the medieval given name Drew, itself a shortened form of Andrew or sometimes from Drogo/Drew.

The #8,862 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 83,558 Americans shares it.

🔗 Compare with another name ✨ Add a first name

Etymology

Drews is generally a patronymic surname meaning "son of Drew." In English records, Drew was used as a short form of Andrew, from the Greek name Andreas, meaning "manly" or "brave." Some early writers also allowed a second source from the Norman name Drogo, which appears in medieval records and can overlap in form with Drew.

History

The name is documented in medieval England in several spelling forms, including Drew, Drewe, Drewes, and Drews. It was especially common in areas where Norman and English naming traditions mixed, and later settled into hereditary surname use. The related spelling Druce is also noted in older surname dictionaries as a close variant.

Origin

patronymic or matronymicEnglishNorman FrenchOld FrenchGreek

Regions

EnglandScotland

Variant spellings

DrewDreweDrewesDruceDruitt

Fun fact

Some 19th-century surname writers linked the family name not only to Andrew, but also to Drogo, a Norman personal name borne by a few Domesday-era landholders.

From the historical record

“Andrew, Andrawes, An- drews.— Bapt. 'the son of An- drew'; V. Anderson. This name waa very popular in the 13th century. As the Dame of the patron saint and knightly cham- pion of Scotland, as title of the”

— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances

Related surnames

Confidence: mixed. Sources: A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances, Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.), British Family Names: their origin and meaning (1st ed.).

← Search another surname