What is the origin of this particular last name??

Question

Can anyone tell me the origin of the last name WHITEHEAD?

Answer 1

Whitehead
English and Scottish: nickname for someone with fair or prematurely white hair, from Middle English whit ‘white’ + heved ‘head’.
Irish (Connacht): erroneous translation of Ó Ceanndubháin ‘descendant of the little black-headed one’ (see Canavan), as if from Gaelic ceann ‘head’ + bán ‘white’.
Translated form of German Weisshaupt (see Weishaupt) or Weisskopf (see Weiskopf).

Answer 2

Origins often have to do with something prominent in the location (Hill), occupation (Smith, Smyth), looks (Short, Longman) or anything else that singled one person out from another. In the time that people just went by first names (e.g. James) if the was more than one they specified which one they meant by referances that would only fit one or the other. James the boat wright would eventually be the Boatwright family and James the draper would eventually be the Draper family.
I would say this possibly has to more with a location name, similar to Whitehill.

EDIT:
Those below me sound very likely also. Like James the white haired becoming the Whitehead family. Though you need to be careful. Names do change through the years and if you look at older census records you find that people had different spellings. Just consider yourself lucky it is not a patrynomic name.

Answer 3

Based on New York Passenger Records:
England 617
Ireland 87
Great Britain 83
Scotland 38
Germany 8
Canada 6

Highest percentage in England was in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Immigration to the US for Whitehead started in 1851 and continued thru 1891

As far as meaning, this is what I pulled:
English and Scottish: nickname for someone with fair or prematurely white hair, from Middle English whit ‘white’ + heved ‘head’.
Irish (Connacht): erroneous translation of Ó Ceanndubháin ‘descendant of the little black-headed one’ (see Canavan), as if from Gaelic ceann ‘head’ + bán ‘white’.
Translated form of German Weisshaupt (see Weishaupt) or Weisskopf (see Weiskopf).

Good Luck!!!!

Answer 4

It's most likely from a nickname referring to someone with white hair but there are a couple of other possibilties here:
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=10&fn=&ln=whitehead

Answer 5

google name origins. but it is of English Origins

Answer 6

Sounds English to me.