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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire named Beckwith, from Old English bēce ‘beech’ + Old Norse viðr ‘wood’ (replacing the cognate Old English wudu).
  • Most if not all present-day bearers of the surname are probably descended from a certain William Beckwith who held the manor of Beckwith in 1364. In the U.S. the name also occurs in the elaborated form de la Beckwith.

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