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Surname Etymology and Meaning of BYWATER

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English: topographic name for someone living by a lake or river, from Middle English by ‘by’, ‘beside’ + water ‘water’.
2. Irish: pseudo-translation (due to confusion with sruth ‘stream’) of Gaelic Ó Srutháin ‘descendant of Sruithán’, a personal name from a diminutive of sruith ‘sage’, ‘elder’. Bywater is found as the English form of this Gaelic name in County Cork, while in Mayo the usual Anglicization is Ryan.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)