Whitehead Family History

English: nickname from Middle English whit ‘white’ + hed ‘head’ (Old English hwīt + hēafod), denoting a person with white or fair hair. Occasionally perhaps from Middle English whīt ‘white’ + hod ‘hood’ (Old English hwīt + hōd).

Irish: adopted by erroneous translation of Ó Ceanndubháin ‘descendant of the little black-headed one’ (see Canavan ), as if from Gaelic ceann ‘head’ + bán ‘white’.

Americanized form (translation into English) of German Weisshaupt (see Weishaupt ) or Weisskopf (see Weiskopf ).