SKEFFINGTON
The surname Skeffington is a strictly locational English name, originating from the village of Skeffington in Leicestershire. This settlement was entered in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the form Scifitone and later appears during the Middle Ages as Sceaftinton.
Its etymology is most commonly recognised as deriving from the Old English words sceap “sheep” and tun “enclosure” or “settlement”, thereby signifying “the sheep enclosure” or “the settlement of the Sceaft people”, the latter name possibly tokenising a tribe noted for breeding sheep.
The earliest documentary evidence of the surname is found in the 1273 Hundred Rolls of Leicestershire, where a man is recorded as David de Scheifinton. The name subsequently appears in the Oxford registers in 1578 as William Skevington and in a 1742 witness list for the church of St Martin's in the Fields, Westminster, as William Sheffington.
Although the original surname is English, a branch of the family migrated to Ireland in the early modern period and adopted the Gaelicised form O’ScuimGince. In both the English and Irish contexts the toponym Skeffington has been linked to the idea of a swath of cut grass, suggesting that a feature of the landscape shaped the name’s meaning.
In contemporary times the Skeffington name is most common in north‑western Europe and in North America. In the United Kingdom it is most frequently observed in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, in Scotland on various islands, and in Wales particularly in Flintshire and Denbighshire. In Ireland the name is concentrated in Offaly, Galway and Clare, with a population in excess of ten thousand today. In the United States the surname occurs predominantly in Massachusetts and New Jersey; one of the first recorded settlers was a James Skeffington who arrived from Ireland in 1655. The name is also represented in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Many orthographic variants have survived. These include Skeffingdon, Skeffyington, Skephenston, Skeffyngpton, Skephington, Skephenington and Skeffingstone, as well as spellings such as Skeffinton, Skeppenston, Skeffenston, Skephaneston, Skephinton, Skephingtun, Shefington and Skeftington. Related surnames that share the same linguistic roots include Skeffing, Skefan, Skep, Skefe, Skephi, Skeff, Skeffen and Skefifin.
Typical given names associated with the Skeffington surname
Male
- Brendan
- Brian
- Christopher
- James
- John
- Mark
- Martin
- Michael
- Patrick
- Peter
- Robert
- Simon
Female
- Anne
- Brenda
- Bridget
- Donna
- Emma
- Gillian
- Karen
- Linda
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Mary
- Teresa
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 Skeffington in...
Braille
⠎⠅⠑⠋⠋⠊⠝⠛⠞⠕⠝
Morse
...-.-...-...-...-.--.-----.
Semaphore
There are approximately 330 people named Skeffington in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around five in a million people in Britain are named Skeffington.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: Celtic
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: Ireland
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: Gaelic
Famous people named Skeffington
- John Skeffington, 14th Viscount Massereene - Noble
- Arthur Skeffington - Politician (1909 to 1971)
- Algernon Skeffington, 12th Viscount Massereene - Northern Irish politician (1873 to 1952)
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.