This is an English locational surname. It originates from either the village of Wennington in Essex or Wennington in the county of Huntingdonshire. Both have effectively the same meaning and both were recorded in early Anglo-Saxon records at least a century before the famous Norman Conquest of 1066. The meaning is the place of the Wynne or Wenn people. In Olde English whynne means "white" and the name may be an ethnic reference to Scandanavian -Vikings who were generally fair haired and fair skinned. Both villages appear in surviving rolls from circa 960 a.d, and they are therefore amongst the earliest of all surviving records. The surname is much later, and being locational is a "from" name. That is to say that it was a surname given to a person after he, and sometimes she, left their original homestead to live somewhere else. This could be the next village or often was far away in "London Town". The surname is quite an early recording in surviving church registers of the city of London. These recordings include Thomas Wennington at St Botolphs Bishopgate, on May 26th 1583, and James Wenington, with his wife Mary, who were christening witnesses at St Stephan Coleman Street, on February 19th 1687. This was during the very short reign of King James 11nd (1685 - 1688), known to history as the last Roman Catholic monarch, and renowned for his total lack of commonsence.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024