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The name in England is mainly locational, describing someone who lived atte wode or at or by a wood.  This meaning gave rise to other surnames, such as Bywood, Underwood and Atwood.  The name could also be occupational for a woodcutter or forester.

In Scotland, the surname root appears to have been the Old English wod, describing someone who is wild or crazy.  An example of the use of this term is the pun in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: "And heere am I, and wod within this wood."

Early surname spellings were Wod and Wode.  The main spelling variant today is Woods.  

Select Wood Resources on The Internet

• Clan Wood Society  Scottish Wood clan association. 
• The Wood Family  Famous potters of Stoke. 
• Woods in Glossop  Derbyshire Woods. 
• The Wood Family  Woods from Yorkshire to London.
  
• Wood Family Tree  Woods from England to Australia.
  

England.   The surname first appeared in England in the 13th century.  Walter de la Wode was recorded in Hertfordshire in 1242 and Roger del Wode in Yorkshire in 1274.

The later name distribution has been more north than south.  Two prominent Wood families came from Yorkshire and Staffordshire.  A Yorkshire Wood line began with George Wood in Barnsley in the late 16th century. Edward Wood of this family, better known as Lord Halifax, was a leading appeaser to Nazi Germany in the 1930's.  The Staffordshire Woods started with three brothers in Burslem in the early 18th century, Ralph, Aaron, and Moses.  They were prominent in the development of Staffordshire's pottery industry.

One Wood family record began in Ripon in north Yorkshire in the late 1500's.  This family moved to London in the early 18th century and later bought Melton Hall in Suffolk.  A Wood family in Glossop, Derbyshire has been traced back to the early 1600's.  Samuel Wood made a fortune in the cotton industry in Derbyshire in the late 19th century.  His son Samuel Hill Wood, grandson Denis, and great grandson Peter have all been chairmen of Arsenal football club. 

Scotland.  Some think that the early Woods - such as the landowning Woods of Bonnytoun in Angus - had moved north into Scotland from England.  William Wood, a merchant, came from this family.  His son Andrew was a successful 15th century sea captain and pirate whose victories over the English made him a Scottish admiral and granted him lands in Largo, Fife.  These Woods were spelling their name Wod until the 17th century.   A branch of the family established themselves in Perth and later moved south into England.

Ireland.  The surnames Wood and Woods may have either been an English or Scottish implant or an anglicization of the Gaelic word coill meaning wood.  The names have mostly been found in the Ulster counties of Monaghan and Tyrone.  Woods is more common in Ireland than in England.

Sir Andrew Wood was a 15th century privateer who became Lord High Admiral for Scotland.
John Wood built the PS Comet, Europe's first commercial steamship, on the Clyde in Scotland in 1812.
Alexander Wood, a doctor in Edinburgh, was in 1853 the first to introduce the hypodermic syringe.
Fernando Wood, first elected in 1854, was one of the most colorful mayors of New York.