Barrington

English

Etymology

• As an English surname, from several placenames, such as the one in Gloucestershire, from the Old English personal name Beorn + -ing (“belonging to”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”). There is also the placename in Somerset of Norman origin, probably named after Barentin in Seine-Maritime, from Medieval Latin Barentinum, Barentini, of pre-Latin origin, perhaps of Celtic/Gaulish origin and identical with Barenton, both names from a Gaulish word related to water.
• As an Irish surname, from Ó Bearáin (literally “descendant of Bearán”), see Barnes, Barron.

Proper noun

Barrington (countable and uncountable, plural Barringtons)

1. (uncountable) A placename:
   1. A village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire district, Cambridgeshire, England (OS grid ref TL3949).
   2. A civil parish in Cotswold district, Gloucestershire, England, which includes the villages of Great and Little Barrington.
   3. A village and civil parish in Somerset, England, previously in South Somerset district (OS grid ref ST3818).
   4. A small village on the Barrington River, New South Wales, Australia.
   5. A locality in Kentish council area, Tasmania, Australia.
   6. A rural community in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
   7. A hamlet in the township of Hemmingford, Quebec, Canada.
   8. A number of places in the United States:
      1. A suburban village in Cook County and Lake County, Illinois.
      2. A town in Strafford County, New Hampshire.
      3. A borough in Camden County, New Jersey.
      4. A town in Yates County, New York.
      5. A suburban residential town in Bristol County, Rhode Island.
2. (countable) A habitational surname from Old English.

Derived terms

• barringtonite
• Great Barrington
• Little Barrington

 

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Barrington is the 6928^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 4843 individuals. Barrington is most common among White (79.85%) and Black/African American (14.14%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Barrington”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 106.