Heywood

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A town in Greater Manchester, England, in the northwest of the country ; a family name of English origin, borne by several notable people
2. An industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in northwest England ; a surname of English origin, shared by various historical figures
3. A market town in northwest England near Rochdale ; an English family name carried by a number of writers and public figures

Etymology: Heywood is an English place name and surname, and the place is the older of the two. The name comes from Old English elements "hecg" or "hege", meaning hedge or enclosure, and "wudu", meaning wood. So the original sense was a wood fenced off by a hedge, a practical marker for land that was set apart for a particular use. Surnames often started as descriptions of where a person lived or held land, and this one followed that pattern. Families who lived by or worked the place took its name, and over time it became a family name carried away from the original site. The same root shows up in other English words for enclosed land, such as "hay" in the sense of a hedged enclosure.