This is an early English place name and surname. As a surname it is locational and originates from either the pre 7th century town of Waropwic - now the small parish of Warwick, near Carlisle, near Hadrian's Wall in the county of Cumberland, or from the county town of Warwick in the English Midlands. The derivation in both cases is probably from the words 'waering-wic' meaning the dairy farm (wic) by the moat or lake. Locational surnames are 'from' names. That is to say they were names given to people who had left their original homes to find work, - and thereafter were known by the name of the place from whence they came. In medieval times, only about one person in fifty could read or write their names, and this gave rise to 'sounds like' spellings being entered in the registers. These contain many examples of the spellings including Waryk, Warreek, Warick, Warwick, Warwicke, Warwike, Worrock, Waryke and others. Examples of recordings taken at random from surviving church registers of the city of London and dated from about 1535 include - Jone Warwicke who married John Brokeshawe at St Margarets, Westminster, on September 12th 1563, Ursula Warwick who was christened at the church of St Peter under St Paul, on June 25th 1658, and Anne Waryke who married Thomas Waryhouse, at St Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, on August 18th 1751. The first known recording anywhere is that of Jon de Warrewyc of York in the pipe rolls of 1273. This was in the first year of the reign of King Edward 1st of England, known to history as 'The hammer of the Scots, 1272- 1307.

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