Thorne
A surname for someone who lived by a thorn bush or at a place marked by thorns.
The #1,922 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,477 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Thorne comes from Old English thorn, meaning a thorn bush or thorn tree. It was first used for someone who lived by such a landmark, and later for people identified with places called Thorne or similar. Historical records also show forms like atte Thorn and Latinized spellings such as de Spineto, both pointing to the same basic idea.
History
The name is well attested in medieval England and appears in records such as Roger atte Thorn in the early 15th century. It also developed as a place-name surname, with several English locations called Thorne or Thorn-related forms contributing to its spread. Variants and related surnames include Thorn, Thorning, Thornley, and Thornhill.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname writers sometimes treated Thorne and Latinized forms like de Spineto as two ways of saying the same thing: “the thorn place.”
From the historical record
“THORN l(Eng.) i Dweller by a Thorn- THORNE / Tree [O.E. for«] Roger atte Thorn. — Close Rolls, A.D. 1424-5. 2 Dweller at the Sign of the Thorn. And Oliver the dyer at the Thome. — Pasqnin, Night-Cap, A.D. 1612; Lower. TH§RNALl:Y''}f°'^ThoPneIey.q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)