The origin of the name Goodwin is English and the Coat of Arms contains A gold shield with a horizontal stripe between six red lions heads. The Crest is A gold griffin sejant with wings expanding. The family motto is Fide et virtute.
Spelling variations include: Godwin, Goodwin, Goodin, Gooding, Goodings, Goodwyn, Godwyn, Godwine, Goodwine, Goddwin, Goddwyn, Goddywne and many more.
First found in Yorkshire where they held a family seat from very early times.
Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Adam Goodwin who landed in Providence, Rhode Island in 1641; and Daniel Goodwin who kept an Inn at Berwick, in 1662; John Godwen settled in Virginia in 1650.
