Webb

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of English origin often used to denote a person involved in the craft of weaving fabric or as a family name derived from such occupation
2. A proper noun referring to individuals or families historically connected to weaving; also a last name carried by various persons notable in different fields
3. A hereditary name stemming from the traditional profession of making cloth by interlacing threads, commonly adopted as a family identifier across English-speaking regions

Etymology: Webb is an Old English word, "webb," meaning woven fabric or a web, related to the verb "weave" (Old English "wefan"). Its root sense is the interlaced product of weaving, and the same stem gives us "web" in its modern sense of a woven net or a spider's silk structure. The surname arose from this trade: a man who wove cloth, or who worked as a weaver, was known as the Webb, and the name passed down through families. Because the word was used for both the weaver and the cloth, it is easy to see how an occupational label became a hereditary one. Surnames like Webb were formed in medieval England, when people who had no fixed family name were often identified by their work. Over the centuries, Webb spread through England and then across the English-speaking world, where it is now found as a family name in Britain, North America, Australia, and elsewhere.