PACKWOOD
Recorded variant spellings include Pack Wood
Packwood is an English habitational surname that originates from the British Isles, specifically England. The name is locational, derived from a place that once existed in the area now known as the West Midlands.
The etymology of the surname is rooted in Old English. The first element is believed to have come from the word pacca, meaning “pocket” or “bag”, while the second element derives from wudu, meaning “wood” or “forest”. The combination therefore suggests a “wood or forest of pockets or clearings”, characterising a particular patch of woodland that was notable for its small clearings or hollows.
Historical documentary evidence places the earliest use of the name in the 11th and 12th centuries. Forms such as Paggewod appear in the 1043 Charter Rolls of Warwickshire, and later in 1195 the name is recorded as Pachawud in the Curia Regis Rolls and as Packwode in the Feet of Fines. These early attestations refer to a settlement near Henley‑in‑Arden, a place that presumably gave its name to the surname. By the late 13th and early 14th centuries the name appears in various spellings across England, for example in the 1280 Hundred Rolls of Warwickshire as William de Pakwood and in 1348 in the Medieval Records of Somerset as Willielmus de Pakewud.
Locational surnames such as Packwood developed when a person moved from the original place of origin to a new area. The settlement’s name was then adopted as an identifier for the individual, often to differentiate them from others with similar given names. Early bearers of the surname recorded in later records include Thomas Packwood, a child christened at Fillongley, Warwickshire in 1569, and Josiah Packwood, who was entered in the Oxford University Register in 1617.
The coat of arms granted to the Packwood family is quartered, with gold pickaxes occupying the first and fourth azure quarters and silver bells in the second and third black quarters. The crest is described as a silver demi‑lion rampant, holding a black bell in the right forepaw and supporting a black bell with the left paw. The family motto reads “None is truly great but he that is truly good”. These heraldic details are preserved in the Burke’s General Armoury and various other sources that record aristocratic insignia.
Over time a range of orthographic variants have appeared, including Peelwood, Packman, Packer and the spellings Packwode, Packwaud, Packvood and Parkword. These variants reflect regional pronunciation differences and the evolution of spelling conventions through the Middle Ages into the modern era. Alternative surnames of similar origin that share the same root elements include Parkwood, Parswood, Poppwood and Parxwood. In some cases the name is also recorded in phonetically distinct forms such as Hackwood or Parsewood, which are thought to derive from the same place-based provenance.
Contemporary frequency data show that Packwood remains most common in the United Kingdom, with a concentration in the West Midlands and particularly in the historic counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. According to 2018 statistics, the surname ranked 12,372 in terms of frequency nationwide, with 52.8 % of bearers residing in England, 34.3 % in Scotland, 7.3 % in Wales and 5.6 % in Northern Ireland or other parts of the UK. In the United States the surname is comparatively rarer: it was ranked 13,211 in 2018, with notable numbers in the states of Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and California, although the overall prevalence remains modest. The Packwood name has also appeared in early colonial records, such as that of James Packwood and his wife who arrived in Virginia in 1699 and Thomas Packwood who came to Philadelphia in 1782, evidencing early trans‑Atlantic migration.
In summary, Packwood is a historically documented English surname that reflects a specific geographical feature and a particular settlement in the Midlands. Its persistence across centuries, the richness of its heraldic and historical record, and the breadth of its orthographic variants attest to its enduring place in British onomastic history.
Typical given names associated with the Packwood surname
Male
- Andrew
- Brian
- Christopher
- Daniel
- David
- John
- Michael
- Peter
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Deborah
- Elizabeth
- Gillian
- Helen
- Jayne
- Julie
- Margaret
- Mary
- Patricia
- Ruth
- Sarah
- Susan
- Wendy
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Packwood in...
Braille
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Morse
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There are approximately 756 people named Packwood in the UK. That makes it roughly the 9,154th most common surname in Britain. Around 12 in a million people in Britain are named Packwood.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Packwood
- Kerry Packwood -
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.