The name Auwerda originated in the Northern part of Holland (a country in Europe) in a provence called Groningen. Near the capital city of Groningen (which is also called Groningen) there was a small village called Aduard. The one who thought of his lastname Auwerda used to live in this place. When people started having lastnames in Europe in the 17th century, a lot of dutch couldn't think of anything better then to pick a last name which refferred to the place where they came from and then add Van which just means from. So Van Eindhoven just means From Eindhoven etc.
A lot of of dutch name start with Van followed by the name of a town or village. No different in Groningen except ... they spoke a funny sounding dialect there, so names sound a little different there. Instead of Van Aduard they used their dialect: Aduard was pronounced as Auwerd and reffering to a place where you're from was done by adding a at the back, hence the name Auwerda. There are more names like that, ending in a, i.e. Ferwerda, Wieringa, Nanninga etc. They're all from the Northern part of Holland (provence of Groningen or Friesland). The village Aduard still excists. It's a part of Groningen city now. More info on Aduard and it's history can be found on http://www.aduard.com.
Written by Alex van Aduard
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