Background: Snedker

Related Names:

Snedker , Snedeker, Snedgar

This interesting surname has developed from an origin which could possibly be old English- a habitation word that translates as one resident at the "Snaed" - a piece of land or former woodland which has been cleared. Or it could derive from the occupational Danish word Snedker which means carpenter or woodworker.

To date, many Snedkers in Great Britain can be traced back to the town of Towcester in Northamptonshire. The earliest person that can be found of that name is John Snedker who married Isabella Smith in Towcester 20 Feb 1736/37. He was a painter/sign-writer. No earlier records have been found to date and there have been no clues to his origins.

According to the Great Britain Family Names Profiling website (http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org ) which presents the findings of a project based at University College London (UCL) investigating the distribution of surnames in Great Britain both current and historic, at the time of the British 1881 census the surname Snedker is not confined to Northamptonshire,but it does have the greatest concentration.  (See map below.)

Over 100 years later in 1998, the name had spread much further afield, but Northamptonshire still held the greatest number.

1881