Windebank Family History

From Middle English wind ‘wind’ + the adjectival suffix -i -y + bank ‘bank ridge hill’ (Old English wind + -ig + Old Scandinavian banke or the Old English equivalent banca). The surname is likely to be toponymic probably in most cases from Windy Bank in Southowram (WR Yorks).

Though there are six other places of the same name in WR Yorks and a place called Windy Bank in Hundersfield (Lancs) which could also have given rise to the surname. It is now rare in Yorkshire and N England but is heavily concentrated in Hants.

Where it has been recorded since the 17th century, this suggests migration to the county or perhaps a separate topographical origin denoting someone who lived at a ‘windy bank’.