Ward

What does the name Ward mean?

Ward is a relatively common surname with a number of origins. Most often, it is an occupational English name deriving from the Old English word 'warde' or 'wearde', which means to 'watch' or 'guard'. This name would have been given to a watchman, guard or gatekeeper. Alternately, and far less commonly, there is a topographical origin for the surname Ward that stems from 'werd', meaning 'marsh'. Secondly in Ireland it can derive from 'Mac an Bh�ird' (son of the bard).

The earliest occurrence of the Ward surname in our family history documents is from 1433, and we currently have 3,564,836 records where Ward appears.