Gorwood Family History

of uncertain origin. The medieval forms suggest it might be from a place-name ending in Old English wald ‘woodland district’ or from an Old English personal name ending in -wald (‘power’) but nothing suitable has been identified.

The Old English personal name Gārweald may have survived into the 13th century as Middle English *Garwold *Gorwald or *Gorwold but this is an improbable source of Gorwood in view of the early spellings with Gur- and Grewe-.