Livingstone

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of Scottish origin, historically associated with various notable individuals and locations throughout the English-speaking world
2. A family name derived from a place in Scotland, borne by missionaries, explorers, and other historical figures of prominence
3. A patronymic or topographic surname common in Britain, particularly Scotland, with historical connections to settlement names and family lineages

Etymology: Many Scottish surnames were taken from the lands a family held, and this one comes from Livingston, a village in West Lothian. The place name is generally explained as an Old English personal name, Leving, combined with "tun," meaning farm or settlement, so it roughly means "Leving's farm." Families who took their name from the land carried it with them, and a Livingston family became one of the more powerful noble houses in Scotland. The name is now best known through David Livingstone, the missionary and explorer whose travels across central Africa made him a celebrated figure. When the journalist Henry Morton Stanley found him at Ujiji, Stanley's account records the greeting "Dr Livingstone, I presume?", a line that has become one of the most quoted in the history of exploration.