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Origin:
The distinguished
name of Hood is derived from the Saxon word "Houdt"
meaning "the wood". The Hood surname was spelled differently
in various countries. In
Old Norse (Icelandic) it was Ude; in France it was Udo and Ude; by the
Danish people it was
Hude; by the Dutch people it was Ouda and in England the Name was Hud,
Hod, Odo, Hode, and various other forms.
Prior to the time
of Robin Hood, who died about the year 1200, the name of "Hood"
was in its original form as "ODO". It has been advised that
the word "Odo" meant "Head" in some
obsolete language such as, perhaps, the ancient Greek & Anglo-Saxon.
It is supposed that all Hood families, whether of English, Scottish or Irish
extraction are descended from "Odo" (1035-1097) one of
the half brothers of William the Conqueror and that Odo was a Roman
Catholic Bishop of Bayeaux and also
Duke of Kent, blessed with a family, which scattered to his
various estates in different
parts of England,as time went on. It seemed that moral standards in the time
of Odo were not very high and that he made no effort to uphold them. He
was a man of considerable shrewdness , ability and quick action, at one
time serving as a co-regent
of England. Odo was killed near Jerusalem in a Crusade battle in 1097.
In several
records it has been stated that "Robin Hood" also known as the
Duke of Lancaster and Robert Locksley, at different times in his
life, was one of
the great grandsons of Odo. Robin Hood was a resident of County
Lancaster in
Northwestern England, where his residence and grave have been on public
exhibition ever since his death, which occured about the year 1200,
closing an eventful life of struggle
against special privilege as partially described by Sir Walter Scott in "Ivanhoe".
We find the name of Hud mentioned numerous times times in the "British
Old Rolls and Records." i.e. Matilda Hud 1379; Johannes Hud 1379
and also John Hud,
County Somersetshire. There is also a record of a John Hood, born about
1720 in County Down, Ireland. He was a Justice of the Peace, known as "Honest
Jack Hood". |
