Pendleton
A habitational surname from places in Lancashire, especially the Manchester-area township and Little Pendleton near Clitheroe.
The #2,168 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,431 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pendleton is a place-name surname taken from one of the Lancashire places called Pendleton. The ending -ton is the Old English tun, meaning an enclosure, farmstead, or settlement. The first element is less certain: older writers linked it to local topography and to earlier forms such as Penhulion and Pennulton, but the exact Old English root is not firmly settled.
History
The surname appears in medieval records as a local byname for people from Pendleton in Lancashire. Harrison noted that there were at least two Lancashire places of the name, one near Manchester and another near Clitheroe, and Bardsley records bearers in Lancashire and Cheshire from the 16th and 17th centuries. It remained especially associated with northern England before spreading more widely through later migration.
Origin
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Fun fact
One of the Lancashire Pendletons lies at the foot of Pendle Hill, which probably helped shape how the place-name was understood locally.
From the historical record
“name Penw(e)alh, or Peniu{e)aldi\ PENDLETON. Bel. to Pendleton (Lanes"), 13th cent, (both places) Penhulion, Pennul- ton, Penelton, Penhiltone [The Manchester Pendleton is near Pendlebury (q, v.), so that the first two elements of the name of the forpier place maybe taken to have the same origin with those of the…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)