Giddens
A surname most likely from the English place-name Gidding, meaning someone who came from that locality.
The #4,995 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,893 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Giddens is generally treated as a locational surname, linked to the English place-name Gidding in Huntingdonshire. The name likely developed through a local spelling and pronunciation pattern in which the ending was softened or expanded, producing forms like Giddens and Giddings. The place-name itself is older than the surname, though the precise original meaning of Gidding is not established in these excerpts.
History
Nineteenth-century surname scholars connected Giddens with the Huntingdonshire place-name Gidding and grouped it with the related form Giddings. The surname is recorded in English regional surname distributions, and later became established in the United States as well. Both spellings are usually treated as variants from the same local source.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century writers noted that the ending in Giddens and Giddings may reflect a pronunciation pattern rather than a separate root word.
From the historical record
“Stilton, CO. Hunts ; (a) a parish near Stowmarket, co. Suffolk. The final 5 in Giddens and Giddings probably represents the ge and gge (pronounced like hinge) found in the entries below : Nicholas de Gedding, co. Essex, Hen.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)Notable people named Giddens
- Anthony Giddens (b. 1938)
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