Winder (surname)

The Winder (wɪndər) name in northern England appears to be derived from place names. There are three places in north Lancashire called Winder, as well as places in Yorkshire, Westmorland, and Cumberland. The parish of Cartmel in Lancashire had a place called Winder as early as the 13th century, and there is evidence of families with the surname De Winder and De Winderghe there at that time. (Translated "of Winder".)[5]

The name of Winder also came to England from Viking origins. Vikings moved from Ireland and the Isle of Man to settle Cumberland in the 10th century, and one of their chieftains was named Vinandr. Windermere, the largest natural lake in England and now a famous tourist attraction in modern Cumbria, derives its name from "Vinandr's lake" (Old Norse personal name 'Vinandr' + Old English 'mere').[6][7]

The Winder (waɪndər) version with a long "i" as in "why" also appears occupational. In Lancashire county, well known for sheep farms and wool processing, a person who winds wool, thread, or yarn was called a winder. Just as a smith became known as Smith, so a winder became known as Winder.[8][9]

In the Hundred Rolls of Lancashire of 1275, a Richard le Winder and Thomas le Winder are listed, the first known examples of someone bearing the surname. (Translated as Richard the Winder and Thomas the Winder.)[6][10][11]

The branches of the northern Winders to first immigrate to America were the families of John Winder of Maryland (immigrated in 1665), John Winder of New York City (immigrated in 1674), and Thomas Winder of New Jersey (immigrated in 1703). Most of their American descendants pronounce the name "Winder" with a long "i".[6]

John Rex Winder, the patriarch of the Winder family in Utah, is from the southern England Winders.

In southern England, the pronunciation is with a short "i" (wɪndər), and a version of the name first appears in Hastings in the Hundred Rolls for Sussex taken in 1274. The sheriff, Matthew of Hastings, successfully appealed for the release of a group of six innocent men from jail, including William de la Wynde and his son John de la Wynde. Their French name literally means "William of the Wynde" and "John of the Wynde."[12]

Wynde "is surely the old and correct pronunciation" of wind, pronounced with a short "i", "preserved to us even to the present day", according to an 1881 English study of etymology.[13] It is seen spelled this way in fragments of Middle English poetry, such as the song of the western wind, Westron Wynde; and in a Saxon name for November—Wynde-Monað, or "wind month".[14] While it is uncertain what it meant for a family to be known as being "of the Wind", this could refer to their home being in a particularly windy spot along the coast, or their being associated with a windmill. After all, the first vertical windmills in England were built in the late twelfth century and they would have been a new technology worth noting in the century afterward as surnames began to develop.[15]

When the next great survey of England was taken, in the Sussex Subsidy of 1296, there are not many last names with both the French “de” and “le”, but instead there is the growing use of the Middle English contraction "atte" (meaning "at the"). That census records a Richard atte Wynde and a Robert atte Wynde, possible relatives or descendants of William de la Wynde or John de la Wynde mentioned in 1274 in Wilting (now part of Crowhurst), a location just three miles down the road.[16]

Over the next century or two in Sussex, we see the "atte" at the start of these last names replaced with an "er" at the end. The name atte Stone becomes Stoner, atte Bridge becomes Bridger, atte Greene becomes Greener, atte Walle becomes Waller, and atte Wynde becomes Wynder.[17]

The letter "y" was often used to represent the short "i" sound in Middle English, and even the will of Richard Wynder in 1555 used spellings such as "wyll" (will), "gyve" (give), "Alyce" (Alice), and "dyshes" (dishes).[18] By the 16th century in the parish records in the counties of Sussex and Kent the surname is spelled interchangeably "Wynder" or "Winder", and by the 18th century "Winder" is the more frequent spelling.

The branch of this family to first come to America was that of the Mormon convert John Rex Winder, born in Biddenden, Kent who immigrated from England to Utah in 1853. This branch of the family pronounces the name "Winder" with the short "i", as in "win".[19]

African Americans, most of whom are descendants of slaves, often used, or were given, the name of their owners.[20] In some Southern states, between one-quarter to one-third of slaves after the American Civil War adopted the surnames of their last owners.[21]

This explains why a number of African American families bear the English-originating surname Winder today. Examples include former Denver Broncos tailback Sammy Winder,[22] and Brigham Young University basketball player Anson Winder.[23]

The slaveholding Winders of antebellum America were descended from the northern England Winders, and pronounced their surname with a long "i", as in "why".