Stewart (name)

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Stewart is a Scottish surname, also used as a given name. It is possibly derived from the old English word "stigweard", a compound of "stig" meaning household, and "weard", a guardian (ward), or from the Gaelic Stiùbhart meaning steward. Alternative spellings are Stuart, Steward and Steuart. The surname Stewart has large concentrations in the United States (mainly in the Deep South, and the other southern states), United Kingdom (mainly in Scotland, Northern Ireland, North East England, South West England, Cumbria, Lancashire, and Yorkshire), Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere that has large Scottish or Ulster Scots diaspora.

The progenitor of the Stewart family was Alan fitz Flaad, a Breton knight who settled in England after the Norman Conquest. His son, Walter fitz Alan, relocated to Scotland during the Anarchy and became the High Steward of Scotland,^[1] hence the origin of the surname. In 2014, Stewart was the 66th-most common surname in the United Kingdom.^[2][3]