English
The surname Ash is of English origin. The name is a Southern English topographical name for someone who lived by an ash tree, derived from the Middle English 'atten ash', at the ash. The name thus comes to signify 'dweller by the Ash tree'. A family could acquire a place name as a surname under three different circumstances: 1. the gentleman lived or worked in or near some topographical formation or landscape feature, either natural or artificial. 2. he formerly lived in a village and thus acquired the reputation of being from that place. 3. he owned or was lord of the village or manor designated. However, it is safe to say that in most cases a placename merely identifies the place where the original bearer of the name formerly resided; as is the case with the surname Ash. The name may also be Jewish of unknown origin, possibly an anglicization of one or more like sounding Jewish names. The surname Ash is also now common in Ireland, where it was taken by a family who established themselves in County Kerry in the thirteenth century, during the second wave of Anglo-Norman settlement. Abner Nash ( 1740-86 ), governor of North Carolina, was of Welsh origin, his parents having emigrated to Virginia from Wales in 1730. His brother Francis ( 1742-77 ) was a general in the Continental army; the town of Nashville, Tennessee, was named in his honour. The name dates back to the twelfth century were a Richard del Eshe is recorded in historical archives. One of the first fore fathers to bring this name to America is that of a Henry Nash, who emigrated to America aboard the barque Adventure; he settled in Maryland. This name is the four-hundredth and sixty-fifth most common name in America.