Etheridge
A surname most likely from a place name, probably meaning someone from an old English locality whose name has since disappeared or shifted in form.
The #3,425 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,630 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This name is usually treated as locational, though the exact place behind it is uncertain. Nineteenth-century surname scholars connected it with a lost or altered place name, sometimes comparing it to forms like Etheridge, Ethridge, or Etridge, but no single secure origin was established in these excerpts. The first element may involve an old personal or place-name element, while the second may reflect an English topographic ending or later reshaping of the name.
History
The surname appears in English records in several spelling forms, including Etheridge, Ethridge, and Etridge. It was already established enough by the early modern period to appear in parish and marriage indexes cited by later surname writers. In modern times it is found especially in England and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname books treated Etheridge as a place-name surname even though they could not confidently identify the exact village or hamlet it came from.
From the historical record
“1^1 IJBeatji, 1^ anFFaith Etheridge; Ilamage Lie! (Lsadon), ) "* Kippa. Kipp.— I Bapt Probably a corruption of Gipp, q.v. ;”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances