Featherstone
A place-based surname originally meaning “person from Featherstone,” from an English place name probably going back to an old personal name rather than the bird feather.
The #9,976 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 95,469 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Featherstone is a locational surname taken from places in England, especially in Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Staffordshire. The name is usually explained from an Old English personal name, often given as Frithestan, combined with tūn, meaning “farmstead” or “settlement,” so the original sense would be “Frithestan’s settlement.” Earlier writers sometimes connected it with the modern word feather, but the historical forms point instead to a personal name origin.
History
Historical surname dictionaries treat Featherstone as a northern English local name, and one source notes medieval spellings such as Petherstan. The name is especially associated with Yorkshire and Northumberland, and later spread elsewhere in England and overseas through migration. It also appears in the related surname Featherstonhaugh, traditionally linked to Featherstone or a similar northern place-name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Despite its modern look, the surname is probably not connected to birds or feathers at all; it most likely preserves an old Anglo-Saxon personal name.
From the historical record
“London, 6; Philadelphia, 18. Feather8ton» Featherstone, Fetharston.— Local, * of Feather- ston/ a parish in co. York. Ftetros de Petherstan, 1379: P. T. forks, p. 25.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)