Warden Surname origins

https://www.geni.com/surnames/warden seems to be a bit empty, but there are quite a few profiles with that surname, maybe something will come out just looking at the first people there chronologically.

Volodya,

Thanks so much for replying to my post. I agree, the general data that is readily available on the internet is for lack of better words "useless". What made you decide to post on this thread? Do you have any relation to anyone with this surname? Or DNA Project in question? Keep in touch, look forward to hearing back from you.

-Will

I just thought that maybe you were not aware of the surnames feature of Geni or of the fact that some other user did put even that little information on there.

I have no relation to Wardens, and was just trying to be helpful, even if just a little.

You do know that when you post a message, it is visible to all the members of this site, unless you mark it for your "family only" or something.

William Edward Warden --

I was very interested in your question. The name "Warden" isn't Scottish in language -- it can't exist in Scotland before 1072 (which is when the Normans made the treaty with Malcolm). But of course, many of the well known Scottish clans have names which come from the Normans -- Bruce, Ogilvie, Ramsay, Douglas, Stuart. I hadn't realized that Warden was a Scottish name as well as an English, though, so I thank you for that.

The geography will get you into Northumberland, just over the border, but not Scotland per se. (That's because Warden as a place name is from the Anglo-Saxon, not the Scots Gaelic; "weard" meaning "guard, or watch" and "dun," meaning "hill". The Anglo-Saxon "weard" and the Norman "wardein" come from the same root, but that is beside the point at the moment. I just get caught up in this stuff.)

So it's most likely that your Scottish Warden origins do come from an ancestor who served as a warden, or guardian. It's not just, though, that your internet searches aren't getting you far -- it's not likely that you can take them back to their origins.

You may well be able to take them back farther than 1706, though. I haven't gotten my Brannens back farther than that, but I don't give up hope.

You never know what will show up in the church records and the church court records and the churchwardens' accounts and the court records and the court rolls. Stuff shows up all the time; not everything has been transcribed. (I know cause I used to do it.)

And as you say, the DNA may help to pinpoint a location.

The Domesday book info, by the way, won't help you -- it's the other version of Warden.

I added to the Warden surname module by quoting from this discussion. Well done to all!

Anne - What "versions" of Warden are you referring to? What is the other version?

The two versions I refer to are the version that comes from the Norman French, and the version that comes from the Anglo Saxon. Though they come from the same root, they mean different things. What I am saying is that if your Wardens are Scottish, you can safely ignore the Anglo Saxon. Therefore, your Wardens come from wardein. There was a guardian back there someplace.

If your Wardens were English, the name could have come from either source.

I know for a fact we come from the northern isle of Scotland, DNA has confirmed it. R1b-S26 and also a fair notable percentage of R1b-S28. I am awaiting my R1b-M343 backbone results. Assuming all this info is accurate, would you recommend I search with the Surname Wardein? Still a trade name.

You might try, but I don't really think it will get you much. This is because the name in Norman French is pretty old, and there is going to be a gap in the records.

Now, what you might do is focus on the history of the northern isles, to see what connection French speakers had with it.

I do not, myself, believe that you are going to be able to track the direct lineage back that far. But you may well be able to get an idea of where the name might have come in.

I myself don't know the connection of the Normans to the northern isles. Norse, yes. French, no.

I am going to go look.

Do you know which isles?

(Because of the great amount of back and forth, this has now gone to private conversation)