The compounds of Wood itself are very numerous, e.g. Braidwood, Harwood, Norwood, Sherrard and Sherratt (Sherwood). But, in considering the frequency of the simple Wood, it must be remembered that we find people described as le wode, i.e. mad (cf. Ger. Wut, frenzy), and that mad and madman are found as medieval names
"Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
And here am I, and wode within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia."
(Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.)
As a suffix -wood is sometimes a corruption of -ward, e.g. Haywood is occasionally for Hayward, and Allwood, Elwood are for Aylward, Anglo-Sax. AEthelweard. Another name for a wood was Holt, cognate with Ger. Holz—
"But right so as thise holtes and thise hayis,
That han in winter dede ben and dreye,
Revesten hem in grene whan that May is."
(Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 351.)
Hurst or Hirst means a wooded hill (cf. Ger. Horst), and Shaw was once almost as common a word as wood itself—
"Wher rydestow under this grene-wode shawe?"
(D, 1386.)