Lincoln
A surname taken from the city of Lincoln, England, originally meaning someone from that place.
The #2,209 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,738 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lincoln is a habitational surname from the English city of Lincoln. The place-name goes back to Roman times and is usually explained as Latin Lindum plus the Old English element ceaster, meaning a Roman fort or city. Over time, the place-name was shortened in everyday speech, and the surname simply came to mean a person who came from Lincoln.
History
The surname appears as a typical English locational name, used for people identified by origin rather than by a trade or personal trait. It is also found as a place-based surname in Scotland and elsewhere through later migration, but the core source is the English city. The form has remained stable, with Lincoln the standard spelling.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same place-name that gives the surname Lincoln is also the source of the county name Lincolnshire, so the surname carries a strong East Midlands geographical association.
From the historical record
“LINCOLN. The city. LIND. The name of Lynne was assumed by the proprietors of the lands and barony of Lyune, in Ayrshire, as soon as surnames became hereditary in Scotland. B.L.G. Lind is Scotch for a lime tree. Jamieson. In England the name occm-s in the XIV. century, as De la Lynde — " of the Linden, or lime…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom