Bywaters Surname: Origin, Meaning & Coat of Arms

Ancestors listed as Bywaters are often found as Bywater a generation earlier. Surname dictionaries give the meaning as “By the water”.

Arms associated with the name

Heraldry is personal: arms associated with the Bywater surname were borne by specific families, and sharing the name does not mean sharing the blazon.

How the spelling arose

The extra ending in Bywaters is patronymic: it identified a person as belonging to Bywater's family. Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists.

351 Americans were listed as Bywaters in the 2010 census. That is enough to place it in the top 100,000 American surnames. For the full story, order the Bywaters surname pack.