This is an English locational surname. Recorded in a number of spellings including Barrington, Berrington, Bornton, and Borrington, it originates from the various villages called Barrington in the counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset and Cambridgeshire. These village names and hence the surname derive from the personal name "Bara", related to the German (Anglo-Saxon) "Baro", a nickname for a troublesome person (!), plus "ing", meaning a tribe, and "ton", a settlement.As the invading Anglo-Saxon's were definately "troublesome" to the existing English, there may be a double meaning to the surname. The surname is also quite popular in Ireland. An English family called Barrington settled in County Leix, Ireland, around the middle 16th century, whilst other Barrington's established themselves in County Cork at about the same period. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say they were names given to people as easy identification, after they left their original homes, and moved somewhere else, although in some cases they also identified the local lord of the manor. Early examples of the surname recording taken from authentic surviving church registers include those of Judeth Barrington, who married John Barker on February 11th 1593, at St. Benedict's, Cambridge, Anthonye Barrington, christened on July 22nd 1599, at Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, whilst Isack Borrington married Amy Culcup, at Sy Giles Cripplegate, London, on Boxing Day, 1652, in the "reign" of Oliver Cromwell. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Warin de Barenton. This was dated 1273, in the Subsidy Rolls of Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307.

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