Northrop
An English habitational surname meaning “north village” or “north hamlet,” from a place name built from north + thorpe.
The #8,305 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,380 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Northrop is an English surname from a place name containing north and thorpe, a word for a village, hamlet, or secondary settlement. The literal sense is “north village” or “northern hamlet.” The same element appears in related spellings such as Northorp and Northrup, which reflect older local pronunciation and spelling variation.
History
The name is part of a broad class of English surnames taken from small settlements ending in -thorpe. It was later fixed in hereditary form and appears in several spelling variants. The surname is best understood as a topographic or habitational name rather than a descriptive nickname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same thorpe element behind Northrop also appears in many English place names and surnames, especially in eastern and northern England.
From the historical record
“THORPE, Anglo-Saxon, a village. Dutch, Dorp, from this comes Northrop, Nbrthrup or Northorp, Winthorp or Winthrop. WOETH, a possession, farm; court, place; a fort, an island. Such names end in worth, as Bosworth, Farnsworth, Wordsworth, Woodworth.”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian NamesNotable people named Northrop
- John Howard Northrop (1891–1987)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.