WICKENDEN
Wickenden is an English surname of Anglo‑Saxon provenance. Its earliest recorded forms appear in the early Middle Ages as Wingindene (1044) and Wigendene (1081). The name was later noted as Wykenden in a list of church marks from 1542, and the place was recorded in 1663 as Polefields – a village long occupied by the family.
The etymology of the name is twofold. One line of explanation derives it from the Old English personal name Wicga combined with the patronymic suffix -ing, signalling “descendant of” or “belonging to” the individual named Wicga. An alternative derivation treats the surname as locational, linked to a now lost place called Wickenden in Cowden, Kent. In this hypothesis the placename itself is thought to come from the pre‑7th Century Olde English wicen meaning “dairy farm”, bonded with denu meaning “valley”, thus a “dairy farm in a valley”.
The earliest documented bearer of the family name is Martin de Wiggindenn, whose record appears in the Kent Pipe Rolls for the reign of King John, dated to around 1200. This early reference indicates that the surname had been established in the county of Kent by the late twelfth century.
In the seventeenth century documents record a burial of one ould mother wickenden of powlfields in 1626. This instance underscores the continuing association of the name with the Polefields area. Further evidence of the surname’s presence in the region comes from the marriage of Briget Wickenden to John Jessopp on 11 November 1567 in Cowden, Kent, and the christening of Anne Wickenden on 18 November 1571 at East Grinstead, Sussex.
Thus, the name Wickenden is rooted firmly in the southeastern area of England, with most occurrences concentrated in Kent and Sussex. It survives in the modern era as a marker of that regional heritage, reflecting both a personal lineage and a connection to an ancestral place which, while no longer extant, continues to be remembered through the surname.
Typical given names associated with the Wickenden surname
Male
- Andrew
- Anthony
- Barry
- Daniel
- David
- James
- John
- Kirk
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Philip
- Stephen
Female
- Christine
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Janet
- Julie
- Linda
- Margaret
- Michele
- Michelle
- Sarah
- Sheila
- Susan
How to communicate the surname Wickenden in...
Braille
⠺⠊⠉⠅⠑⠝⠙⠑⠝
Morse
.--..-.-.-.-.-.-...-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,599 people named Wickenden in the UK. That makes it roughly the 5,087th most common surname in Britain. Around 25 in a million people in Britain are named Wickenden.
Famous people named Wickenden
- Keith Wickenden - Politician (1932 to 1983)
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.