Orange
A surname usually tied to the French town and principality of Orange, rather than the fruit.
The #7,629 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 70,976 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most commonly explained as a locational name from Orange in southern France, the town that gave its name to the ancient principality of Orange. The place-name goes back to the Latin form Arausio, the name of a local settlement and people, later reshaped into Orange in French. In surname use, it would originally have marked someone as “from Orange” or connected with that place.
History
Medieval records show early bearers in England, including a William de Orenge in Domesday evidence noted by Lower. The name later became widely familiar through the title Prince of Orange, associated with the Dutch royal line and with William of Orange. In English-speaking countries it also appears sporadically as a surname, likely from both older locational usage and later Huguenot or other Continental influences.
Origin
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Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is historically linked to a place in Provence, not to the citrus fruit, whose name came into European languages by a different route.
From the historical record
“may possibly be the source. ORANGE. A AVilliam de Orenge is a Domesday tenant in co. Bucks. AVhence this " William of Orange " came, I cannot guess ; certainly not, I should say, from the district from which his great name- sake, some six hundred years later, origin- ally had his title, that being a small town and…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom