SIDAWAY
The surname Sidaway is of English origin. It is derived from the Old English personal name Sida or Sidu in combination with the word weg, meaning “way” or “path”. Consequently the literal meaning of the name is “the path or way of Sida”. The element weg frequently appears in Anglo‑Saxon place‑names and frequently denotes a track or route within the landscape.
A separate, but equally plausible, source for the surname is locational. It may be taken from the hamlet of Sidway, situated south‑west of Newcastle‑under‑Lyme in Staffordshire. The name of that settlement itself is formed from Olde English elements sid (wide or broad) and weg, describing a wide, broad track or route. In the Middle Ages villagers who migrated for work often adopted their native settlement name as an identifier, which led to the dispersal of the surname across the country.
Early evidence of the family name appears in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The christening list of Madeley in Staffordshire records a Robert Sidway as a witness on 28 January 1569, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, a period when surnames were becoming firmly established. Subsequent parish registers echo this early usage: the union of Alice Sidwaie and Thomas Smythe on 10 August 1572 at St. James', Clerkenwell, London; the christening of Elizabett, daughter of William Sydway, on 6 November 1580 at St. Giles, Cripplegate, London; and the marriage of Ann Sidaway and Jonathan Waugh on 22 December 1747 at St. George's, Mayfair, London.
Topographical surnames such as Sidaway represent some of the earliest forms of family names in England. They were derived from physical features of the environment – in this case a significant track or path – and served as useful identifiers in small pre‑industrial communities. As social mobility increased during the Middle Ages, bearers of the name migrated outward, spreading the surname beyond its original locality while retaining its descriptive character.
Typical given names associated with the Sidaway surname
Male
- Andrew
- Antony
- David
- Ian
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Richard
- Robert
Female
- Anne
- Elizabeth
- Helen
- Kathryn
- Margaret
- Mary
- Rebecca
- Sarah
- Sharon
- Susan
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 Sidaway in...
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There are approximately 1,052 people named Sidaway in the UK. That makes it roughly the 7,090th most common surname in Britain. Around 16 in a million people in Britain are named Sidaway.
Famous people named Sidaway
- Robert Sidaway - Actor
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.