Henwood Name: Where From?

Our Henwood family comes from England. I've just traced the family back to a
Henry Henwood born in 1827 in Basingstoke, Hampshire, Harley Wintney, England. He was married to Sarah Unknown, also born in 1827. Harley Wintney seems to be the center of our family Henwoods.

Now a present day Henwood from this line is doing a dna test with Family Tree dna so we will know more about the origins. The results will be out in about two months.

HEN: In the book, Finding Our Fathers-a guidebook to Jewish Genealogy by Dan Rottenberg, the name Hen is listed. The reference says it is related to GRACIAN.
Under Gracian, it says: It was a prominent Spanish family descended from Judah ben Barzilai. Members lived chiefly at Barcelona from the 13th through 16th centuries. Most used the name
HEN. The Jewish Encyclopedia has 14 biographies. The name is related to NASI and TRABOT.

WOOD: This surname is related to HAYS. This was a Dutch family that emigrated to America in the early 18th century. Jewish Encyclopedia has a family tree and many biographies. They also refer to the records of Myers, Hays and Mordecai Families from 1707 to 1913. They are related to WOOD, and other names.

I'm wondering if a Hen couldn't have married a Wood and they connected the surnames such as the Spanish people do. The female doesn't drop her name but adds hers onto his.

Or, was there a sign on their home or village made of a wooden hen for identification purposes? DNA will soon tell us more. Until then, on with a paper trail and regular genealogy findings.

On familytreedna, I have joined the group of people ending with the name "Wood". We'll see if there is a connection somehow. So far, there was no Henwood group, though I know the world abounds with living Henwoods. I urge them to join the dna testing.

Post Script: September 10, 2009 at 8:56pm

A name ending with Wood might be telling us this is a geographic location of where the original people lived. the surname "Atwood" is from the Saxon "atte Wood" or at the wood.

In the 13th century most men and women in England shared the same few given names. Brian M. Scott, researcher of names, listed 21 manor held by the Abbey of Bee which showed that one of every seven men was named William and that the five most common names were:

William, Richard, John, Robert, and Hugo. They were used by 45% of the men listed.

The top 10 names accounted for 70% of the men listed.

Women's names were also common. The top six were:

Matilda, Alice, Agnes, Edith and Emma. Matilda was the most common and used by one out of six women. The top 12 were used by about 70% of the women listed.

Later surnames were needed and used and were often depicted graphically because of the high rate of illiteracy. Perhaps the first Henwoods had a wooden hen outside their home.

from ancestry.com:English: habitational name from any of various places so named, as for example Henwood in Cornwall, in Linkinhorne parish, which is named from Old English henn ‘hen’, ‘wild bird’ + wudu ‘wood’, or Hen Wood in Wootton, Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire), which is named from Old English hiwan ‘religious community’ (genitive plural higna) + wudu.

PPSS 9/14/09:
henfield in sussex has the following meaning nothing to do with birds or hens!
Henfield W. Sussex. Hanefeld 770, Hamfelde 1086 (DB). Probably ‘open land characterized by stones or rocks’. OE hān + feld.best wishes Gordon Lawrie in England