Eggleston
A habitational surname from places called Eggleston, most famously in County Durham, though some examples may be simplified forms of Eccleston.
The #3,550 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,700 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Eggleston is a place-based surname taken from one or more English localities named Eggleston, especially the chapelry in Teesdale, County Durham. The place-name is generally explained from an old English personal name or place-element plus tūn, meaning a farm or settlement, though 19th-century writers often treated the spelling as a variant or softened form of Eccleston. In other words, the surname originally meant someone "from Eggleston."
History
The name appears in records from the early modern period, including London parish entries and later emigration lists. Printed surname dictionaries note especially Durham connections, and census/distribution studies also link it strongly with northern England. Because some spellings were fluid, Eggleston may overlap historically with Egleston or Eggleton in some families.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname commentator specifically remarked that some Egglestons may be 'lazified' forms of Eccleston, showing how spelling could drift in handwritten records.
From the historical record
“(i) ' of Eggleslone,' a chapelry in the pariiib ofUiddleton in-Tcesdale, CO. Durham i (a) ' of Eggleston Abbey,' in the parish of Rokeby, union of Teesdale, N. Rid. Yorks. Probably in some cases a lazified form of Eccleston, q.v. 1 cf. Slagg for Slack, &c.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances