Woodfine Family History

Of uncertain origin, it looks like it should be from an unrecorded Middle English form of Old English wudu-fīn ‘wood heap wood pile’. Possibly therefore for someone who lived at or near a wood pile, but no medieval bearers of such a name have been found. The earliest forms of the name in Cheshire appear to be composed of wood + fen, possibly the source of Woodsfin (Lane) in Tattenhall (Cheshire), but it is not recorded before the 1911 edition of the Ordnance Survey map.

Woodfine may therefore be an altered form of another name such as Woodfall or its variant Woodfield, with the common substitution of /n/ for /l/. Compare Margreta Woodfall 1676 in IGI (Runcorn, Cheshire), Mary Woodfall 1678 in IGI (Frodsham, Cheshire), and Anne Woodfield 1562 in IGI (Witton cum Twambrooks, Cheshire) with the 1566, 1587, and 1724 bearers whose names could allude to Woodfall Hall in Preston (Lancs).

For the Kent name, compare Henry Woodfield 1618 in IGI (Linsted, Kent) with the 1594 bearer cited below who may have taken their names from Woodfalls in Yalding (Kent), or perhaps the names are altered forms of Woodville.