Covington
A surname most likely taken from an English place-name, originally meaning the settlement linked with someone named Cofa or with cows.
The #1,298 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,406 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Covington is generally treated as a locational surname, from the English place-name Covington in Huntingdonshire. The place-name is usually explained as meaning “the settlement of Cofa’s people” or “Cofa’s estate,” from an Old English personal name plus the place-name ending -ton, meaning an enclosure, farm, or settlement. Some older writers also suggested a link with the word for cow, but that is less certain and probably secondary.
History
The surname appears in medieval records and was later carried beyond England through ordinary migration, especially to North America. It is one of those names that could arise independently from a place-name, so most bearers are not necessarily related to one another. The name also appears in the peerage title Lord Covington, which reflects the place-name rather than a separate family origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The historical debate around this name is a good example of how older surname books often weighed place-name evidence against folk etymology from everyday words like cow.
From the historical record
“temp. Henry II. COVINGTON. CO VENT ON. A parish in co. Huntingdon. COW. Apparently local. There is a place called Cow- Honey bourne in Glouces- tershu'e, and a John de Cowe occurs in the H.R., CO. Bedford. It may however be a sobriquet, for both De Cu and Le Cu are found in tlie same records, and cu is an an- cient…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom