indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Surname (from given name)
Usage English (British)
Meaning & History
This surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and may be either a locational or topographical surname. If the former, it derives from any of several minor places in West Yorkshire, such as Littlewood in Wooldale near Holmfirth, all of which are so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "lytel", little, small, and "wudu", wood. There is a locality known as Littlewood in Staffordshire, near Cannock, which may also be the ource of the modern surname in some instances. Littlewood may also be a topographical surname, for someone who lived in or by a "small wood", derived from the same Olde English elements.