Frequency: (56401)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: topographic name for someone who lived by a copse or thicket, Middle English s(c)hage, s(c)hawe (Old English sceaga), or a habitational name from any of the numerous minor places named with this word. The English surname was also established in Ireland in the 17th century.
2. Scottish and Irish: adopted as an English form of any of various Gaelic surnames derived from the personal name Sitheach ‘wolf’.
3. Americanized form of some like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish surname.
4. Chinese 邵: variant of Shao.
FOREBEARS: Early American merchants and revolutionary patriots were Nathaniel Shaw (b. 1735 in New London, CT) and Samuel Shaw (b. 1754 in Boston).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
