SWINNERTON
Swinnerton is a surname of distinctly English origin. It is a locational name derived from the village of Swynnerton in Staffordshire, situated a few miles south‑east of Stone. The name has been recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sulvertone and in the 1272 Assize Court Rolls as Swynforton. In both instances the elements are Old English, with swin meaning “pig” or “swine” and tun meaning “enclosure” or “settlement”. Consequently the surname can be interpreted as “the settlement by the pig ford” or “pig enclosure”, reflecting the likely rural economic activity of the place from which bearers were identified.
The earliest recorded form of the surname is Swynnerton, found in the 13th‑century Hundred Rolls of Staffordshire during the reign of King Edward I. In 1272 a Robert de Swynnerton is listed in the rolls, and a 1292 entry in the Derbyshire County Rolls mentions a John de Swynnerton. These entries confirm that the name was in active use by the middle of the thirteenth century.
Later references illustrate the continued presence of the family in England. In 1534 a Thomas Swinnerton published a work under the assumed name John Roberts titled “A mustre of scismatyke Bysshappes of Rome”. An infant christening record from 1567 notes a Rogerus Swynnerton born in Newcastle upon Tyme, while a marriage on 2 September 1583 recorded the union of Jocasta Swinnerton with Thomas Burslem in Burslem, Staffordshire.
In more recent centuries the surname has persisted in the United Kingdom. The 2011 Census recorded 1,353 individuals bearing the name Swinnerton, making it one of the more uncommon surnames in the country. The distribution is uneven, with a significant concentration in the north‑east, particularly within Sunderland and County Durham. In the United States the name remains relatively rare, with 358 households identified in the 2010 Census.
Outside the British Isles Swinnerton can be found in other European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and France, where it is usually associated with city centres: around Münster in Germany, and near Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht in the Netherlands. In France a small number of families are recorded in Bordeaux and its surroundings. The surname is also present, though sparsely, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in parts of Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Over the centuries the spelling of the name has varied. Early forms include the original Swynnerton and a later Synnerdine, which later contracted to the present spelling. Typical suffix additions found in various English counties—Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Warwickshire—include -s, -son, -stone, -stoun and -stow. The name also appears in other linguistic contexts; for example, the Hungarian Szenteshelyi, Polish Swienszyn and German Swinarnen or Swinern may be cognates or adaptations. In the seventeenth century two Swinnerton branches settled in Ireland, one in Kilkenny and the other in Armagh, giving rise to the variants Layton‑Swinnerton and Swinderty. In America the surname is occasionally shortened to Swinton, and in some records is substituted by Winn or Winters.
The history of Swinnerton demonstrates a clear lineage from an Anglo‑Saxon place name to modern global dispersal, with the core elements of the name and its early documentary attestations continuing to provide a distinct identity for those who bear it today.
Typical given names associated with the Swinnerton surname
Male
- Andrew
- Brian
- David
- Ian
- Jeremy
- John
- Keith
- Mark
- Michael
- Mike
- Paul
- Peter
- William
Female
- Anne
- Emma
- Fiona
- Helen
- Julie
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Mary
- Patricia
- Sandra
- Susan
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 Swinnerton in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 833 people named Swinnerton in the UK. That makes it roughly the 8,513th most common surname in Britain. Around 13 in a million people in Britain are named Swinnerton.
Famous people named Swinnerton
- Bernadette Swinnerton - Road racing cyclist
- Catherine Swinnerton - Road racing cyclist
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.