Dictionary of Family Names

AKENSIDE, AKENHEAD, AIKENHEAD.   A local name meaning "of Akenside," i.e. the side of the clump of oak-trees; A. S. ácen; cf. Beechen, Linden, Birchen, with the adjectival suffix -en.   The place, whether a manor or mere farmstead, is distinctly set down in the list of landed proprietors in Hodgson's Hist. of Northumberland (iv. 268).   Akenside, the poet, it will be remembered, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1721.   His parentage and descent, therefore, were strictly local, and his 'forbears' had wandered but a few miles from their original home; cf. Thomas Carlyle and the city Carlisle (v. Carlisle).   -side is a common suffix of north English local names, used in the same sense as lake-side, pit-side; cf. Fawcett or Garside, q.v.   Also, cf. Adam de Birkinside, 1322:  E. and F., co. Cumb. p. 165.

Akenhead, i.e. at the head of the oak-trees, corresponds with Birkenhead, Birkett, and Beckett, q.v.