30 October, 2002 I have discovered that a number of my "Boatwrights" have the "w" and some siblings in the same family spell the name differently. While no one in the earlier queries commented about the origin of the name, I'm sure you know that the name is one designating an occupation - that of boat building. A "wright" (with the "w") is a worker in wood with the prefix indicating what was made of the wood. In other words. a "wright" is to wood as a "smith" is to metal. So, if this is true, and I believe it is, the correct spelling is with a "w".