Hungerford
A habitational surname from the English market town of Hungerford in Berkshire.
The #9,830 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,730 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hungerford is a place-name surname taken from Hungerford in Berkshire. The first element is usually explained as a personal name or byname of uncertain origin, while the second is Old English ford, meaning a ford or river crossing. In plain terms, the name means “the ford associated with Hunger” or “Hunga’s ford,” though the exact early form is not fully settled.
History
The surname belongs to the long English tradition of taking a surname from one’s home town or village. Families bearing the name are recorded among the gentry in medieval and later English history, and the place-name itself helped keep the surname localized in southern England. It is now also found more widely through later migration, especially in English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The town of Hungerford lies on the River Kennet, and its name has become one of the better-known Berkshire place surnames.
From the historical record
“Inkpen.— Local, ' of Inkpen,' a parish near Hungerford, in Berk- shire. Literally, the 'pen, or en- closure oilnge* the first settler; v. Ing, and cf. Penfold. Nicholas de Ingepenne, co. Berks, Hen.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)