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The wright Surname

wright Name Meaning and History

  1. English, Scottish, and northern Irish: occupational name for a maker of machinery, mostly in wood, of any of a wide range of kinds, from Old English wyrhta, wryhta ‘craftsman’ (a derivative of wyrcan ‘to work or make’). The term is found in various combinations (for example, Cartwright and Wainwright), but when used in isolation it generally referred to a builder of windmills or watermills.
  2. Common New England Americanized form of French Le Droit, a nickname for an upright person, a man of probity, from Old French droit ‘right’, in which there has been confusion between the homophones right and wright.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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wright Family Facts

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Distribution of wright Families in the US in 1920
Number of wright families
 2208-4413
 737-2207
 1-736
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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