WASHINGTON
The surname Washington is of English origin and belongs to the class of locational surnames. It derives from the Old English personal name Wassingatun, which is interpreted as “the settlement associated with Wassa”. In the Anglo‑Saxon period the element wassa signified “hunting”, and consequently the name is understood to denote “the hunting lodge” or a settlement of the Wassa people. The places that gave rise to the surname are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, notably Washington in County Durham and a similarly named village in West Sussex.
Early documentary evidence shows the name in various medieval spellings, for example Robert de Wasshington in Lancashire charters of 1395 and John Washington in the Lancashire Assize court rolls of 1401. Later bearers include Laurence Washington, a student at Oxford University in 1567, and Philip Washington, a Freeman of the city of York in 1605. The first recorded spelling of the family name appears as Ralph de Wassingeton in the Sussex Subsidy Rolls of 1327, during the reign of King Edward III.
The most internationally recognised bearer of the surname is George Washington, the first President of the United States, who descended from John Washington, who emigrated from England in 1657 during the Commonwealth period. The Washington family were originally the lords of the manor of Washington in Durham, later relocating to Northamptonshire in the sixteenth century. The family’s coat of arms is described as a silver shield bearing two red bars, with three red mullets in chief, and a crest consisting of a gold ducal coronet from which a raven, wings endorsed, emerges.
Typical given names associated with the Washington surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- David
- George
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- William
Female
- Eileen
- Helen
- Jennifer
- Joanne
- Julie
- Karen
- Linda
- Margaret
- Nicola
- Patricia
- Rebecca
- Sabrina
- Sarah
- 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 Washington in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 3,009 people named Washington in the UK. That makes it roughly the 2,987th most common surname in Britain. Around 46 in a million people in Britain are named Washington.
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 Washington
- George Washington - First President of the United States (1732 to 1799)
- Denzel Washington - American actor, screenwriter, director and producer
- Kerry Washington - American actress
- John David Washington - American actor and football player
- Booker T. Washington - African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor (1856 to 1915)
- Isaiah Washington - American-Sierra Leonean actor
- Sabrina Washington - Singer
- Conor Washington - Football player
- George Washington - American inventor and businessman of Anglo-Belgian origin (1871 to 1946)
- Irving Washington - County cricketer (1879 to 1927)
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.