Langston

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A personal name, most famously borne by Langston Hughes, the American writer of poetry and prose during the Harlem Renaissance
2. The name of an American poet, Langston Hughes, known for his celebrated verse about Black life and culture in the twentieth century
3. A given name or surname associated with the African American author Langston Hughes and his influential work in literature and poetry

Etymology: Langston is a surname, and its roots are plain but easy to picture: it comes from Old English "lang", meaning "long" or "tall", joined to "stan", meaning "stone". The name therefore describes a tall or long stone, most likely a standing stone or a marker set upright in the landscape, and it belongs to a family of surnames that took their identity from a distinctive feature of a place or property. Old English surnames of this kind often began as nicknames or locational names, so a family might have lived beside, or been known by, a notable upright stone. Over the centuries the name spread as a family name in England and was carried abroad, where it became established in North America as well.