Kenyon
A Lancashire surname meaning “from Kenyon,” a township in Winwick parish, with an older place-name origin behind it.
The #2,796 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 23,950 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most commonly explained as a locational name taken from Kenyon, a township in Winwick parish, Lancashire. The medieval records cited by 19th-century surname writers show forms like "de Kenyon," which means "of Kenyon," confirming the place-based origin. The deeper meaning of the place-name itself is not fully settled in the excerpts here.
History
Early examples appear in medieval Lancashire records, and later bearers of the name remained especially associated with that county. One source notes a family tradition linking the Kenyons of Peele, Lancashire, with the township itself. The name later spread beyond its local homeland, and in modern times it is also established as a given surname in Britain, Ireland, and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname has long been treated as a classic example of an English locational surname: a family identified simply as being “from Kenyon.”
From the historical record
“cuna, cows, and meard, a keeper. KENYON. Lord Kenjon's family are descended from the Kenyous of Peele, co. Lancaster, and their surname is doubtless derived from the township of Kenyon in that shire. KEOGH. A contraction of the Irish eurname Mac Eochy, or Eochaid. The family claun descent from Fergus, king of…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom