BOYNTON
Boynton is an English locational surname that endures within the genealogical records of the British Isles, particularly in the county of Yorkshire and the diocese of Greater London.
The name is derived from a village of the same name situated in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The earliest documented spelling, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, appears as Bouintone. In that period the entry identifies the settlement as the tun of the Bofa people, a local tribe that also inhabited the nearby village of Bainton.
Analysing the individual components of the surname reveals that it is formed from the Old English word boia, meaning “boy”, and the suffix tun, meaning “settlement” or “enclosure”. Consequently, the surname can be interpreted as “the settlement or enclosure of the boys” and reflects a descriptive place‑name rather than an occupational or descriptive family name.
Throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period the name has been recorded in several orthographic variants, including Bointon, Boynton and Boyington. These variations are typical of English locational surnames, which were often assigned to individuals who had moved from their place of origin in order to be identified easily elsewhere. For example, the few recorded bearers in the 16th and 18th centuries were: Francis Bointon, a witness at Wintringham in 1560; Eleanor Boynton, christened at Filey in 1585; Agnes Boyington, who married Richard Hampton at Harefield in 1587; and Elizabeth Boyington, born in Settrington in 1736.
Surviving parish registers of Yorkshire and the Greater London diocese provide further evidence of the surname’s continuity. The early examples are indicative of a community that retained its identification through the migration of its members to more urban centres, typifying the historical usage of locational surnames as markers of origin.
Typical given names associated with the Boynton surname
Male
- Andrew
- Anthony
- Christopher
- David
- Douglas
- James
- John
- Kevin
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Thomas
Female
- Catherine
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Helen
- Janet
- Julie
- Laura
- Mary
- Monica
- Patricia
- Sarah
- Susan
- Valerie
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 Boynton in...
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Morse
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There are approximately 1,211 people named Boynton in the UK. That makes it roughly the 6,386th most common surname in Britain. Around 19 in a million people in Britain are named Boynton.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Boynton
- Lucy Boynton - Actress
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.