Ashworth

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of English origin, or a name given to a village or locality in England
2. A family name of English origin that is also borne by several small English places
3. Any of several English family names and place names derived from Old English words for ash trees and enclosures

Etymology: Ashworth is a surname rather than a common word, and its history is written into the landscape it came from. It was given to people who lived at a minor place in Lancashire, in northwest England, so the name records where a family lived before it became a family name. The place-name is built from two Old English elements: "æsċ", meaning "ash tree", and "worþ", meaning "enclosure". Together they describe a piece of land marked out among ash trees, a small enclosed homestead or plot where those trees grew. Many English surnames follow this pattern, taking the name of a farm, hamlet or field and passing it down to whoever lived there. A man living at the ash-enclosure became "Ashworth" in local speech, and his children carried the name on. The surname thus preserves a fragment of medieval Lancashire's ordinary geography, and its meaning has changed little since the Old English words were first put together.