Pinkney
An English surname tied to a place-name, most likely meaning “Pinca’s island” or a similar riverside locality.
The #5,456 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 48,408 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally taken from an English place-name, with early forms such as Pinkeney and Pincheni pointing to a Normanized local name. Harrison and Lower connect it with a place associated with an Old English personal name, probably Pinca, plus -ey, meaning “island” or “waterside land.” Some older writers also noticed a Latin-looking form behind the name, but the place-name explanation is the main one.
History
The name appears in medieval English records and was later associated with a baronial family descended from Gilo de Pincheni in the time of Henry I. Lower says that family probably came to England at the Conquest and held land in Northamptonshire. The surname later spread beyond its original locality and appears in several English counties and in modern anglicized spellings such as Pinckney.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A medieval spelling trail links the surname to a place-name tradition rather than the color pink, despite how it looks today.
From the historical record
“pers. name f. Lat. pingu-is, tat. PINKNEY (Eng.) Bel. to Pinkney (Norfolk: 13th cent. Pinkeney ; Wilts, etc.) = (prob.) Pinca's Island or Riparian Land [A.-Sax. *Pincan-ig — Pincan-, genit. of Pinca. (Q.'E. pinca, ra., a point), -|-(g-, island, waterside] PINKS, Pink's (Son) : v. Pink. PlNKSTON(E, v. Pinxton.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)