Brief History of the Wright Surname

Many famous people share the surname of Wright. There were the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, who flew in their airplane at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who practiced organic architecture and built over 360 original homes. If you live in the United States, chances are that you either know a Wright or are related to a Wright, as it is the 31st most popular surname in the nation. There are over one-half million Wrights residing in America today. In Great Britain, Wright is the 20th most common name with nearly 200,000 people.

The surname of Wright originated in England along the Scottish/English border. It was first found recorded in records in Berwickshire. There are many variations of the last name of Wright: Wright, Rite, Write, Wrighte, Alwright, Allwright, Oldwright, Wryte, and Wraight. It means "craftsman, builder," and is derived from the Old English word "wryhta" which means "worker."

Eventually, the clans split and some became Scottish and the others became English around 1000 A.D. Around 1603, Scotland and England became one under James VI of Scotland. He wanted to spread the border clans out and many Wrights ended up in Ireland or straight to the colonies.

The Irish Wrights settled mostly in Gola in county Monaghan, Newry in county Dow, Compsey Cottage in Tipperary, and Mespil in Dublin. They had to agree to remain Protestants and loyal to the crown. Many of them grew restless and ended up sailing to the Colonies. The first known Wright was Robert Wright and he settled in Virginia around 1623. The following individuals followed in his footsteps in various areas of the colonies: Richard Wright, Salem, MA (1630), Richard Wright, VA (1636), John Wright, Newfoundland (1730), and John Wright, GA (1732). From all of these original settlers sprang the beginnings of the Wright families in the United States.

Today, there is even a Wright DNA Project that collects the DNA of Wright men. By doing this they are hoping to chart the Y Chromosome of each DNA sample submitted and establish common ancestors among participants. They are planning on breaking down "brick walls." A brick wall would be when records are lost due to fires, floods, and other various disasters. Many times genealogists are frustrated when they find misspellings and other difficult records and often cannot go any further. Using molecular genealogy, this problem may soon be alleviated.

SOURCES:

Caitlin Wright. "The Ancient History of the Distinguished Surname Wright." URL: (http://www.caitlinbinning.com/wrightname.htm)

"Wright Name Meaning and Origin." URL: (http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/w/bl_name-WRIGHT.htm)

Wrights in Great Britain Statistics URL: (http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/surname-wright.html)

Wright DNA Project. URL: (http://www.wright-dna.org/index.html)