BRITTANY FORSHAW

Mainly North American: modern coinage, taken from the traditionally Celtic-speaking region of north-west France, known in medieval Latin as Britannia, because it was settled by refugees from Cornwall and Devon following the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Its adoption as a given name has also been influenced by Britt, of which it is sometimes regarded as the full form. In recent years it has rapidly established itself as a popular name in the English-speaking world.

English (Lancashire): habitational name from a place so called, perhaps Forshaw Heath in Solihull, Warwickshire, although the modern distribution is much further north.