Frequency: (430)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: habitational name from any of various places so named, as for example Henwood in Cornwall, in Linkinhorne parish, which is named from Old English henn ‘hen’, ‘wild bird’ + wudu ‘wood’, or Hen Wood in Wootton, Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire), which is named from Old English hīwan ‘religious community’ (genitive plural hīgna) + wudu.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
