This is an ancient English surname. It has several possible origins. Deriving from the pre 7th century Olde English words "wudu" meaning wood and "mann", a friend, foreman, or even a relative of a man called "Wood". It is first recorded as Wudman in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 which followed the Norman Conqest of 1066 and provided a listing of all landowners in the country, although Hugo Wudeman of Yorkshire recorded in the pipe rolls for that county in 1166 is probably the first of the surname to be clearly identifiable. The meaning of the name is obscure. It may be occupational and describe a person who owned or worked a wood, it may have been topographical and as such describe a dweller in a wood, or it may even have had some lost religious or tribal origin. John Wodeman who is recorded in the county of Dorset in the year 1213 would suggest that he lived in a wood, although Nicholas le Wodeman of Staffordshire in 1294, indicates that this was occupational name and described a wood worker.

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