Harington

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, borne by people such as the Elizabethan writer Sir John Harington
2. An English surname carried by various people, including the Tudor author who designed an early flush toilet
3. A surname of English origin, notably associated with the poet and inventor Sir John Harington of the sixteenth century

Etymology: Harington is a variant spelling of Harrington, the English family name, and the two share the same history. Harrington is a place-name surname, taken from one of several English villages so called, and the name's roots lie in the Old English personal name Hereweard, or a similar name combining the elements for army and guard. That is why many families bearing this surname trace their origins to a particular place rather than to a single ancestor. Because the spelling varies, the name appears in records in several forms, and the single-r version is the one most often seen in older documents. Readers meeting the name in a genealogy or historical text should treat the two spellings as the same family name rather than as distinct surnames.