WATKINS
Dorchester and Caroline Counties, Maryland
Sussex County, Delaware
Warren and Tippecanoe Counties, Indiana
ORIGIN: Welsh / English
The Watkins family name is centered
in England at the
rural village of Ruardean, which is
situated in the
Royal Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,
close to the Welsh border.
Watkins is a name originating in Wales
in the 12th or 13th century,
the meaning of which being the subject
of some lively debates.
Old texts on the origins of British
and Welsh surnames claim
it means "Son of Walter"; others say
it relates to "water", and there
are other less probable theories, as
well.
There are several variant spellings.
Of course, if you are among
those names, you may regard WATKINS
as a variant spelling.
WATKIN is familiar to those still in
England and Wales, and
there are many WADKINS around, primarily
in the
USA Southern States.
In the very earliest of recorded history,
some really strange things
happened to our name...clerks and priests
and enumerators started
using some form of phonetics on us,
such that we have names like
WATTKINS, WATCYNS, WATCYNGE, and some
others in
the archives. But whatever the *exact*
spelling, we're all still kin,
somewhere along the line.
Source: David Watkins, Watkins
Family History Society
Rather than duplicate some of my files,
I have linked them to documents that I have already uploaded to other sites.
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