Worthington
A habitational surname meaning someone from Worthington, originally a place-name tied to an early English family or settlement.
The #2,503 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,364 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Worthington comes from an English place-name, most famously Worthington in Lancashire and also places of the same name in Leicestershire. The older analysis in the historical sources explains it as Old English *Weorðinga-tūn*, roughly “the estate or farm of Weorð’s people,” with *-ing* meaning “people/descendants of” and *tūn* meaning farm, estate, or settlement. In other words, it began as a label for someone who came from that place.
History
The surname is recorded as a local or habitational name in medieval English sources, and one 19th-century dictionary specifically traces the family to Worthington in Lancashire in the reign of Henry III. As with many English locational surnames, it spread beyond its original county as people moved and the name became hereditary. It is found in England and later in the United States and other English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is one of many English names built from a place ending in -ington, which often signals an ancient settlement tied to a named family or group.
From the historical record
“WORTI-IAM. A parish in Suffolk. WORTHINGTON. The family are traced to Worthiugton, co. Lancaster, temp. Henry III. WKI 391 WYC”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom