WASHBURN (Washburne, Washbourne, Washborn) is a Northern English topographic name of someone living on the banks of the Washburn River in West Yorkshire, so named from the OE (Old English) personal name 'Walc' + OE 'Burna' stream, the river is first recorded as 'Walke' (s) 'Burna' in the early 12th century.

The surname and the family derived it’s name specifically from two small villages of Washborn or Washbourne, Little Washbourne or Knight’s Washbourne, in Overbury in the southern part of Worcestershire, England and Great Washbourne, in the same neighborhood, county, Gloucester. The word itself is from two Saxon words - Wash, meaning the swift-moving current of a stream, and burn or bourne, a brook or small stream.

The authentic history of the family begins before the adoption of surnames. Washbourne’s Book of Family Crests states that the founder of the family was of Norman ancestry, was knighted on the field of battle at the time of William the Conqueror, 1066, being endowed by him with lands and the manor of Little and Great Washbourne, counties of Glocester and Worcester. As early as the reign of Henry II we know that William, son of Sampson, was Lord of Little Washbourne.

The armorial bearings of the family indicate decent from the house of Zouche and Corbett. The ancient coat-of-arms: Argent on a fess between six martlets gules three quatrefoils slipped bendways of the first. Later the family at Worcester modified this slightly: Argent on a fess between six martlets gules three cenquefoils of the field, crest: A coil of flax surmounted with a wreath argent and gules thereon flames of fire proper.