PENDLETON
Pendleton is an English locational surname that originated in the county of Lancashire. It is derived from the Old English words penn, meaning “hill”, and tun, meaning “enclosure” or “settlement”. The original bearers of the name were therefore likely to have lived in, or near, a settlement situated upon or adjacent to a hill.
The earliest documentary evidence of the place name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where a settlement under Pendle Hill in Whalley parish is recorded as “Peniltune”. A second Lancashire locality, situated near Salford, is documented in the Pipe Rolls of 1200 under the spellings “Penelton” and “Penhulton”. The common interpretation of both place names is that they denote a settlement by Pendle Hill, and that is the core semantic element that supplied the surname.
In the 14th century the surname is first noted in tax records under the spelling Penelton in the Poll‑Tax Returns of 1379, during the reign of King Richard of Bordeaux. Over the following centuries, the name was recorded in a variety of forms – such as Penylton, Pendlenton, Pendlington and Penlington – reflecting the regional and dialectal differences in early modern England.
As a locational surname it was originally used to identify individuals who had moved from their place of birth to another settlement. The surname therefore appears in early parish registers in Lancashire, Yorkshire and elsewhere, for example a christening record for Alice Pendleton dated 4 June 1549 at Middleton in Oldham, and a record for Robart Penlington dated 7 March 1562 at Rotherham, Yorkshire.
The most frequently cited heraldic device associated with the Pendleton family is an azure shield with a silver chief supporting three golden garbs on a red fess. The crest is described as a black lion’s paw holding a gold battle‑axe. Such devices were traditionally adopted to signify the status and heritage of a family bearing the name.
During the early modern period, families bearing the Pendleton name were mainly concentrated in England, with notable concentrations in Lancashire, the West Midlands and the south‑east of the country. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries the family had migrated to the British colonies, and the name subsequently spread throughout English‑speaking countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In the United States the name remains relatively common, particularly in Texas, North‑Carolina, California and the southern states; a county in Kentucky was named Pendleton County in 1798 in honour of a prominent Pendleton family of that era.
Today the surname persists in its place of origin and remains comparatively widespread across the United Kingdom and abroad. Its continuity over nine centuries attests to the endurance of locational surnames rooted in the landscape of early medieval England.
Typical given names associated with the Pendleton surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- Ian
- James
- John
- Mark
- Richard
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Ann
- Christine
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Joanne
- Louise
- Margaret
- Mary
- Sarah
- Susan
- Victoria
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 Pendleton in...
Braille
⠏⠑⠝⠙⠇⠑⠞⠕⠝
Morse
.--..-.-...-...-----.
Semaphore
There are approximately 2,213 people named Pendleton in the UK. That makes it roughly the 3,873rd most common surname in Britain. Around 34 in a million people in Britain are named Pendleton.
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 Pendleton
- Victoria Pendleton - Cyclist and jockey
- Brian Pendleton - Musician (1944 to 2001)
- Shaun Pendleton - American soccer player-coach (1961 to 2011)
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.