townsend

[farleyk]

Where does the name Townsend originate?

[dot.hawkes]

it is a generic place name and would have been a name given to someone to distinguish them from someone else, like for example, John the Smith from John at the towns end.

iA good guide to the names distribution over time is to look at the International genealogical index, which was compiled over the last 50 years and contains records of baptism and marriage listed by surname, including spelling variations, then alphabetical by christian name and in chronological order within each christian name. it is an excellent source that will lead you to follow up specific entries in the actual registers.
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/search/framese t_search.asp?PAGE=ancestorsearchresults.asp