Warrington
A habitational surname meaning “from Warrington,” originally taken from the Lancashire place name.
The #7,441 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,963 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Warrington is a habitational surname from the town of Warrington in Lancashire. Older spellings in the records point to an Old English place name, likely built on a tribal or family-name element plus -ing(a)-tūn, meaning “the estate or settlement of the people of ...” The exact first element is uncertain in the older scholarship, and 19th-century writers offered different reconstructions of the original form.
History
The surname is found in medieval and later English records as a place-based byname for someone who came from Warrington. It remained established as a hereditary surname and later spread beyond northwest England. The name is also occasionally treated in older sources as a minor Buckinghamshire place name, but the Lancashire town is the main source for the surname.
Origin
Regions
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Fun fact
Warrington was already written in several medieval spellings, which is why older surname books sometimes disagree about its exact early form.
From the historical record
“WARRING, v. Waring. WARRINGTON (Eng.) Bel. to Warrington (Lane), 14th cent. Weryngton, 13th cent. Weringtott, 12th cent. Wlinton, Domesday Walintune, A.-Sax. *W(e)al(h)inga-tun = the Estate of the W(e)alh Family [O.E. W(e)alh, Welshman, foreigner -|- -inga, genit. pi. of the fil. suff. -ing + tun, estate, farm…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)