Northrup

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, borne by various people, and also associated with the aerospace firm Northrop
2. A surname shared by several notable people, and also the name of an American aerospace company
3. A proper name used as a surname, and also found in the name of a well-known aircraft manufacturer

Etymology: "Northrup" is an English family name, and its history is mostly a matter of a compound that became a surname. The name is built from "north" and "thorp," an Old English and Old Norse-influenced word for a village or farmstead, so it originally described a settlement lying to the north of some other place, or someone living there. Names of this type were common across northern England and the Danelaw, where Scandinavian settlers left many place-names ending in "-thorp." The name then passed into use as a surname, following the pattern of many English surnames formed from local place or landholding descriptions. Its spelling has varied over the centuries, and the form "Northrup" with the "p" is one of several variants found in records. Because the surname was adopted by different families independently, it does not point to one single ancestor or place.