Badwick

Recorded as Badwick, Bedwick and Bodwick, this is a rare English surname. It is locational and would seem to be from an unrecorded 'lost' medieval village probably called 'Beda wic' from the pre 7th century personal name 'Beda' meaning a bead and originally given as a popular nickname to a 'rounded' person, and 'wic' meaning a dairy farm. There are a number of places in England whose name commences with the 'Bed(a)' prefix, and there are also known to have been at least five thousand villages which since the 15th century have totally disappeared.It is at least likely that one of them was called 'Bedwick' and gave rise to this surname. Furthermore locational surnames were often 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes, and moved somewhere else. Spelling over the centuries being at best erratic and local dialects very thick, often gave rise to 'sounds like' spelling forms. In this case we have the recording of Elizabeth Badwick or possibly Bodwick, at the church of St Botolphs Bishopgate, on July 2nd 1593 when she married one Edward Selby,