Canning
A surname that can come from an English place name, a nickname for a leader or king, or an Irish surname that was later Anglicized as Canning.
The #8,227 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,555 Americans shares it.
Etymology
For English bearers, the name is often taken from the place name Bishop's Cannings in Wiltshire, or from related local forms such as Canning/Cannings. Some older writers also tried to connect it with a word for a leader or king, but that explanation is less secure. In Irish records, Canning can be an Anglicized form of several Gaelic surnames, including forms beginning with Ó Cianáin and related names that were rendered in many different spellings.
History
The name is well known in Britain through the family of George Canning, the 19th-century British statesman, whose line was said to descend from a medieval Bristol benefactor named W. Cannynges. In Ireland, Canning became established as an English spelling for more than one Gaelic surname, which helps explain why the name can have different origins in different families. As a result, modern Cannings are not all related to one another.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The historic Bristol spelling Cannynges is associated with the benefactor William Canynges, who helped rebuild St. Mary Redcliffe Church.
From the historical record
“CANN. A parish of Dorset. CANNING. Probably from Cannings, CO. "Wilts, (Bishop's Cannings). The two viscounts, Canning and Stratford de Red- cliffe, are descended from W. Cannynges, the pious founder of St. Mary Redclifife, Bristol, in the XV. cent. CANNON. A canon, a member of an ec- clesiastical order. See…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom