Family name origins & meanings
- English (mainly Lancashire) : probably a variant of Twiss, or possibly in a few cases 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.