Huntington

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A place name for several American towns and cities, notably a river city in West Virginia ; a family name borne by various people, including a physician tied to a hereditary brain disease
2. Name of several US towns such as a West Virginia river city ; a family name shared by notable figures, among them a doctor who described an inherited neurological condition
3. A geographic name given to multiple American communities, one a port on the Ohio River ; an English surname carried by people, including a physician linked to an inherited brain disorder

Etymology: Huntington is a surname before it is anything else, and its story is mostly the story of a place. The name comes from Old English roots meaning "hunter's estate" or "hunter's farm," and it was attached to the town of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England, whose name derives from "Huntandun," a hill where hunters gathered. Families who came from there took the place name as a surname, and in time it spread across England and then across the Atlantic. Several Americans carried the name into public life, which is why it is now most often recognized as a proper noun. Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Connecticut, is one example, and the Huntington family of Connecticut produced several governors and political figures. The name's association with wealth comes largely from Collis P. Huntington, a railroad magnate whose fortune funded the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.