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English: occupational name for a watchman or guard from Middle English ward ‘watchman guard’ (Old English weard used as both an agent noun and an abstract noun). English: occupational name from Middle English warde ‘armed guard’ (Old English weard ‘watching guarding’) with the same meaning as 1 above. Irish: shortened form of McWard an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Bhaird ‘son of the poet’. The surname occurs throughout Ireland where three different branches of the family are known as professional poets. Jewish (American): adoption of the English name (see above) in place of some similar (like-sounding) original Ashkenazic surname such as Warshawski or Warshawsky . Altered form of French Guérin (see Guerin ) and Benoît (see Benoit ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022