Runyon
Runyon is an uncommon surname whose older explanations connect it to words meaning “to whisper” or “to speak mysteriously,” though the origin is not certain.
The #3,872 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,732 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The excerpted source gives a speculative explanation linking Runyon to a word for “a foreteller of secrets” and then to a supposed form meaning “to whisper” or “to speak mysteriously.” That analysis is not secure, and the surname is best treated as having an uncertain origin. In modern use, Runyon is usually discussed as an English surname of unclear derivation, possibly shaped by dialect or by later spelling variation.
History
Runyon is established in the United States and appears in several spelling forms, but the historical record does not give a single, well-settled explanation for its first use. The name is relatively uncommon and is more often encountered in American records than in older British surname lists. Because the surviving evidence is thin, its history is clearer as a family name than as a fully explained etymology.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname has long attracted folk-style explanations because its sound seems close to older words connected with whispering or secrecy.
From the historical record
“a person. A foreteller of secrets. Runyon. Run-ian, to whisper, to speak mysteriously, from rim, a mystery, and ian, a verbal ending. RuscJi. Riscc, pronounced reesche, a rush. Rush, Rusk, from the same.”
— Family Names from the Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and Scotch