Pinkerton
A surname most likely of Scottish or Norman local origin, probably altered from an older place-name such as Punchardon or Pont-Chardon.
The #4,195 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,555 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally treated as a local or place-based name, though the exact source is uncertain. Earlier writers connected it with a Norman place-name like Pont-Chardon, later reshaped in medieval records into forms such as Punchardon, Pincherdon, and Pynkerton. The ending -ton is usually explained as the familiar place-name element meaning 'enclosure' or 'farmstead,' but some authorities thought the whole form was corrupted and difficult to trace with confidence.
History
The name appears in medieval Scottish records, including the Ragman Roll of 1296 in a form written Pynkerton. Nineteenth-century surname writers disagreed on whether it was a corruption of a Norman place-name or a now-lost Scottish locality. It remained a comparatively uncommon surname, with later bearers found in Scotland, England, and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname books openly admit that Pinkerton is a 'doubtful' name, which is a reminder that even well-known surnames can have murky origins.
From the historical record
“936) [O.E. pinca, pynca, m., a point] PINKERTON. A doubtful name. Lower('Pa- tronymica Brit.') says HiiAPynkertonoccwrs in the Ragman Roll, A.D. 1296, and that it is a corrupt form of Punchardon, which is found, by the way, in the Yorkshire and Devonshire Hundred-Rolls. This is not very likely. Punchardon evid.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)