This is an English locational surname. It originates from a place which seems to have been called "Filewood" although no such place, or indeed any spelling near to it, is to be found in the gazetters of the British Isles. This suggests that this is one of the three thousand or more "lost" village names, of which the only usual public reminder of its existence is the surviving surname, often in a wide range of spellings. This in fact is not the case here, the spelling has remained constant at least in the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London since the Elizabethan period. This suggests that Filewood may even have been close to London, and perhaps even one of the many hundred of small places which over the past thousand years, have been steadily absorbed within the ever gowing metropolis. As to what the name means is also unclear, but it is possible that it may be from the Olde English pre 7th century "fifle-wudu" meaning "Five woods" or from the Danish Viking personal name "Fili" again with "wudu". Examples of the surname recordings taken from the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London include: Roger Filewood who married Dorothy Abdell at St Peters, Cornhill, on April 23rd 1588, and William Filewood, whose son Nicholas, was christened at St Olaves, Southwark, on August 21st 1739.

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