Blackway

Recorded in a number of spelling forms including Blakeway, Blackway, Blackwey, and others, this is an English surname. It is locational and probably from a village called Blakeway in the parish of Axbridge, in the county of Somerset. The meaning of the name is the "black road" from the Olde English pre 7th century words "blaec weg". Quite why a place should be known for its black road is unclear, and it may be that there was originally a more defined local reason for the name. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people who had left their original village for whatever reason, and moved elsewhere. In this case the epicenter of the surname recordings are in Greater London, which may also suggest that there were other places called Blakeway or similar, and now "lost", which may have contributed to the surname. Lost villages are believed to have supplied at least three thousand surnames to the lists of the British Isles, and that may well the case here. Early examples of the recordings include: Ann Blackwie, the daughter of Richard Blackwie, christened at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on January 26th 1594, Barbara Blackway, the daughter of John Blackway, christened at the church of St Mary, The Virgin, on March 14th 1596, and Dorcas Blakeway who married Richard Peal, at St Andrews by the Wardrobe, on February 17th 1716, both the latter being in the ancient city of London.