Twist Family History

English (mainly Lancashire): probably a variant of Twiss or possibly in a few cases a habitational name from Twist, a minor place in Devon, or Twist Wood in Brede, Sussex, both named from Old English twist, Middle English twist ‘something twisted or forked’.

English (mainly Lancashire): possibly a metonymic occupational name for someone in the cotton-spinning industry whose responsibility was to combine threads into a strong cord, a sense of twist recorded from the 16th century.

North German: nickname from Middle Low German twist ‘argument, quarrel’ for a quarrelsome person.

German: habitational name from a place so named in Lower Saxony or Twiste in Hesse, probably referring to a ‘place of division or twisting of land or a boundary’ (as in 1 above).

This surname is very rare in Germany.