Lithgow

English

Etymology

Scottish habitational surname from the town of Linlithgow, in West Lothian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɪθɡəʊ/

Proper noun

Lithgow (countable and uncountable, plural Lithgows)

1. (countable) A habitational surname.
   • 2025 June 11, Stuart Heritage, “‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 July 2025:

     When John Lithgow was announced as Dumbledore, he revealed that a friend had sent him a link to an article entitled: “An open letter to John Lithgow: Please walk away from Harry Potter.”

2. (uncountable) A placename, from the surname:
   1. A city and local government area in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia.
   2. A hamlet in the town of Washington, Dutchess County, New York, United States.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Lithgow is the 40432^nd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 541 individuals. Lithgow is most common among White (75.05%) and Hispanic/Latino (22.0%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Lithgow”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 447.