ARRINGTON
Arrington is a surname of English origin that is principally locational, deriving its name from one or more villages in the British Isles. The name is most strongly associated with the small parish of Arrington in Cambridgeshire, and it is occasionally linked to a medieval settlement in Northamptonshire and to the village of Errington in Northumberland. The name is therefore typical of surnames that were historically adopted to identify people by the place in which they lived or hailed from.
The earliest etymological explanation for Arrington relies on the Old English words earn, meaning “eagle”, and tun, meaning “settlement” or “enclosure”. From this perspective the surname may be interpreted as “eagle settlement” or “enclosure of eagles”. An alternative interpretation, accepted by some scholars, treats the element Earing, a personal name in Anglo‑Saxon England, as the source of the name, making Arrington the “settlement of Earing’s people”. Both explanations point to a place-name origin that was then adopted as a family name when the practice of hereditary surnames first became common in the late medieval period.
Documentation in the church registers first records the name in the Cambridge area. The earliest example is of Margareta Arrington, who married Randulus Pate at Elsworth, Cambridge in 1529. A later, fully dated record names Thomas Arrington, who married Amicia Shingleton on the 7th of April 1583 at St Botolphs church, Cambridge. These entries illustrate that the surname was already in use and passable in parish records prior to the widespread spread of formalised recording in London, which began in the 1570s with marriages such as that of John Arington (spelt in one instance as Arington) with Margaret Grynne at St Dunstans, Stepney, on 19 October 1574.
The name has produced few variants over the centuries. The most common alternatives are Arington, Errington, and Arlington, with occasional misspellings such as Arrinton and Aarington. It is important not to confuse Arrington with the Irish surname Harrington, which is only superficially similar. The variety of spellings can be attributed to the fluid orthography of medieval England and to the linguistic changes that occurred as families moved between regions.
In modern times the surname appears in both the United Kingdom and the United States, with a noticeable concentration in the Southeast of the United States. According to the 2000 Census of the United States, Arrington ranked the 1,309th most common surname, attesting to a moderate but significant presence. Genealogical databases such as Forebears note that Kent, a county in southeast England, recorded the highest incidence of the name in 2014, while, in terms of density per 100,000 inhabitants, the surname is most common in the U.S. Virgin Islands. These figures reflect the patterns of emigration and settlement that have spread the name beyond its original English roots.
Because the surname is rooted firmly in a specific place and has retained a largely unchanged form over the centuries, it remains relatively rare, particularly in the United Kingdom where competitive surnames are common. Its uniqueness, combined with the clear historical record, makes it an interesting case study in the way English locational surnames have evolved and migrated across the globe.
Typical given names associated with the Arrington surname
Male
- Michael
- Thomas
Female
- Cynthia
- Shorma
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Arrington in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 20 people named Arrington in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Fewer than one in a million people in Britain are named Arrington.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
