Arrington
A habitational surname from an English place-name, most likely meaning “from Arrington,” a village name built on an old place-name element ending in “-ton.”
The #1,573 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 13,518 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Arrington is a locational surname taken from the village of Arrington in Cambridgeshire, and likely from another English place-name of the same type. The ending -ton is the common Old English tun, meaning a farm, settlement, or enclosure. The first element is less certain in the older sources, but the name is clearly English rather than occupational or nickname-based.
History
English locational surnames usually arose when people moved away from their home village and were identified by where they came from. The surname is recorded in English and colonial-era contexts, and later spread widely in North America. Older reference works sometimes treat it alongside similar place-based names ending in -ton.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The 19th-century surname writer Lower explicitly lists Arrington as a parish name, showing how closely these surnames were tied to local geography.
From the historical record
“were erewhilc adorned. ARRINGTON. A parish in co. Cam- bridge. ARROW. A parish co. "Warwick; a township CO. Chester ; also two western rivei-s. ARROWSiSHTIT. A maker of arrows, or i-ather arrow-heads. This, in the days of archery, was a distinct trade. In the curious burlesque poem. Cock Lorelles Bote, these…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom