Talk:Wodehouse (surname)

The record of a Wodehus tower in Yorkshire and a de Wodehus family in Norfolk before 1100 seems to invalidate Tolkien's view that "Wodehouse is a corruption of Woodwose" (the latter was still used, as wodwos etc., centuries later in Late Middle English). What was apparently really the case was that "the wodwos" (wild man) was used as heraldic cant for "wodhus" from an early time, and over time became itself known as "woodhouse". This means that "woodhouse" as name of the wild man is an artefact of heraldry, but that the toponyms themselves are not derived from the name of the mythological being. Another question would be if "wodehouse", "wodehus" could not derive from "wodnes hus", i.e. a sanctuary of Woden, but this I haven't even seen claimed anywhere; might be worth looking for, apparently the name of Woden was corrupted to Woodin, Wooding and associated with "wood" from an early time (presumably right after Christianization), so that in many cases it is impossible to tell the etymologies apart (surname Woding, Wooding, either from Wod(en)ing or from wudung); in any case "wood-house" is a perfectly satisfactory explanation for the English toponym. --dab (𒁳) 13:31, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Unsurprisingly, references containing the speculation I outline above can easily be found; M. A. Lower, English Surnames (1843): "The Wodehouse, or Wild Man of o the Woods ... I am inclined to think he was originally derived from the Woden of the Saxon mythology." The fact that this idea has appeared in print in the 19th century of course doesn't lend it any actual plausibility. --dab (𒁳) 13:41, 10 October 2013 (UTC)