WALKINGTON
Walkington is an English locational surname that derives from a place name in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The name of the village is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wachetone and later appears in the rolls of the reign of King John as Walkinton. The surname itself comes into document in the Poll Tax rolls of 1379 when Thomas de Walkynton, who is presumed to have been the lord of the manor of Walkington, is recorded in Howdenshire, then a sub-county of Yorkshire.
The place name Walkington is formed from the Old English elements wealc and tun. The element wealc is interpreted either as a personal name such as Walco or more plausibly from the word waelisc, the modern equivalent of Welsh or Walsh, meaning ‘foreigner’. The element tun means an enclosure or settlement. Consequently, the surname would have originally identified a person who came from or lived in the settlement of Walkington, thereby signalling his or her origin from that locality.
Locational surnames traditionally arose when individuals moved away from their home villages and were identified by the place of their departure. Accordingly, a person who had settled in another part of England might be called de Walkington or simply Walkington to indicate that he or she was a native of the village. In some instances the surname could also have been borne by the original land-owning family of the hamlet.
In addition to its geographical significance, the surname reflects the cultural and linguistic milieu of early medieval England. The village of Walkington, first mentioned in the Domesday Book, is situated in the East Riding of Yorkshire, a region characterised by a strong association with the Christian faith. The use of a personal name or a descriptor such as wealc in the toponym demonstrates the intermingling of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic linguistic elements that marked the period before the 7th century.
Today the surname Walkington remains a rare English name that preserves a connection to its 11th-century origins and the linguistic heritage of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Typical given names associated with the Walkington surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- Ian
- James
- John
- Mark
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- Trevor
Female
- Davina
- Edna
- Heather
- Helen
- Julie
- Karen
- Kathryn
- Margaret
- Mary
- Michelle
- Nicola
- Paula
- Samantha
- Sarah
- Vivienne
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 Walkington in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 630 people named Walkington in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around ten in a million people in Britain are named Walkington.
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 Walkington
- Jack Walkington - Rugby union football player, and rugby league football player and coach (1909 to 1997)
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.