Freshwater Family History

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a source of clear drinking water from Middle English freis fresche ‘fresh’ + water ‘water’ (Old French freis of ancient Germanic origin).

This may also be a habitational name from an unidentified place so called.

There is a Freshwater on the Isle of Wight though this seems not to have given rise to a surname and the compound is also recorded as a minor placename in Dorset.

However, no prepositional forms indicating a locative type have been noted among the early English bearers and no such placename has been found in or near the counties where the surname first appears.