Woodward surname meaning

Woodward is an English occupational surname for a woodland officer or forester. Middle English woodward comes from Old English wudu, “wood,” and weard, “guardian” or “protector”—someone charged with trees, timber, and game in a forest or manor wood. Medieval records show forms such as le Wudeward. Woodard already appears earlier in this catalog as a related but multi-route name; for Woodward the forest-warden sense is the primary dictionary reading. Occupation is the right type, and that wood-guardian meaning is high confidence.