ABLETON
The name Able, meaning "son" and the name of the first murder victim, was a popular surname at one time, while "ton" as a suffix, signifies at farm or settlement. Return to Pennington Tree.

ABRAM
A contraction of Abraham, so therefore either a patronymic but possibly also applied because of its original meaning "high father" as the original Abram or "father of multitudes" as the modified version Abraham. Return to Pennington Tree.

ALEXANDER
A surname adopted from the Christian name which was popularised in Scotland in particular after two Scots kings were named Alexander in the 13th century. The name itself is Greek and means "defender or men". Return to Leask Tree.

ARNOLD
A Saxon Germanic name meaning "eagle power" or "Eagle haugh", where a haugh is a nook or other comfortable place to live. Originally mainly a surname of the English Midlands, especially Nottinghamshire and East Yorkshire where there are villages of this name. Return to Pennington Tree.

ASPINWALL
A predominantly Lancashire name meaning "the spring or stream in the aspens", with the south-west Lancashire name probably originating from a place just outside Ormskirk. Return to Pennington Tree.

BALE
A name, usually spelt Bail, meaning "the outer wall of the castle" and used to denote residence or authority from the castle. Return to Pennington Tree.

BALL
A nickname meaning either "fat as a ball" or "bald" or possibly meaning someone from the "round hill or knoll". Return to Pennington Tree.

BALLARD
A nickname meaning "bald", commonest in Worcestershire. Return to Pennington Tree.

BULFORD
Origins unknown. Return to Pennington Tree.

BURN
A once widespread word meaning "stream". Although the word is now confined to northern Britain, the surname and use of the word was widespread. Return to Pennington Tree.

CAIN
As a Manx surname it is a contraction of McCaine meaning "son of warrior". Caines from elsewhere are apparently unconnected. Return to Pennington Tree.

COLLIER
An occupational name meaning "charcoal burner or seller". Return to Pennington Tree.

EUNSON
A mainly Orcadian surname which appears to be quite uncommon, although it presumably means "son of Euan". Return to Leask Tree.

GRIEVE
A northern English and Scots name, originally meaning "governer of a province", but later used to indicate any "overseer, manager or bailiff". Return to Leask Tree.

GILBERTSON
A patronymic name "son of Gilbert". Return to Leask Tree.

HELSBY
The name of a village near Frodsham in north Cheshire. The origins of the village's name are not known, but it could conceivably be "hill town". Return to Pennington Tree.

HENDERSON
A Scottish and northern English name meaning "son of Henry". Return to Leask Tree.

HUDSON
A name mainly from the English Midlands meaning "son of Hugh" or "son of Richard". Return to Pennington Tree.

HUGHSON
The commoner version of the above name in parts of Scotland. Return to Pennington Tree.

JAMESON
A patronymic name meaning "son of James". Return to Pennington Tree.

JOHNSON/JOHNSTON
A patronymic name meaning "son of John". With the common-ness of the christian name the surname has arisen independently in many areas and in many forms. The spelling with a "t", with or without a terminal "e", is commonest in Scotland and may also be linked to a towns in Dumfries and Perth, formerly known as St. Johnstone. Return to MacLeod Tree.

LANG
A German name meaning "long". Return to Pennington Tree.

LYON
A common forename in the Middle Ages, meaning "lion" not surprisingly, with the surname derived from the forename (as in the modern Leo) or possibly as a nickname. Return to Pennington Tree.

LEASK
A Scots name of uncertain origin, possibly a diminutive of an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "happy" or from an Old Norse word for "a stirring fellow". There is a village in Aberdeenshire named Leask which may be the original source of the name. This branch is supposed to have migrated to Orkney. In Shetland the name is common and the link to Norse origins is strongly favoured there, as Norse connections are strongly promoted. Return to Leask Tree.

LUNT
A Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire name of Norse origin, often spelt Lund, meaning "a wood or sacred grove". There is a village called Lunt on the outskirts of Liverpool which is where my family originate. Return to Pennington Tree.

LUCAS
A mainly Midlands and south-west name, referring to "Luke", the disciple of Jesus and author of one of the gospels.   Return to Pennington Tree.

MANSON
In Scotland this name means "son of Magnus". Return to Pennington Tree.

MARKLAND
Supposedly a placename in Lancashire, although I have not located it, the name means "boundary lane".   Return to Pennington Tree.

MARSHALL
A Germanic Norman name in origin meaning "horse servant", used to describe a whole range of jobs from horse groom through blacksmith to Earl Marshall, a close advisor of ruling monarchs. The name is found throughout Britain but it is associated with the clan Keith in Scotland (Sir Robert de Keth was marischal to Robert the Bruce). Return to MacLeod Tree.

MacINTYRE
An anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac an T'saoir meaning "son of the carpenter". Return to MacLeod Tree.

MacLAREN
An anglicised form of the Scots Gaelic for "son of Laurence". Return to MacLeod Tree.

MacLEOD
A Scots Gaelic name with Norse connections. The name means "son of ugly" with the original Leod generally agreed to have been the younger son of Olaf the Black, last Norse king of Man and the Northern Isles. Return to MacLeod Tree.

MORRISON
In Scotland the name does not have as simple an origin as may appear. Although the mainland Scots name probably originates from a Norman name "son of Maurice", in the Outer Hebrides the name appears to have originated from the anglicisation of two Gaelic names. One was the name of an Irish family originally called O'Muirgheasain (meaning "sea valour") and the other derived from the descendants of Ghille Mhuire ("servant of the Virgin Mary"). Return to MacLeod Tree.

MORTIMER
A name of French origin, originally commonest in Devon, meaning "dead sea", probably originating from a place name in Normandy where the name probably indicates a stagnant lake, rather than the Biblical Dead Sea. Return to Pennington Tree.

MURRAY
Someone from the county of Moray in Shetland, a place which means "seaboard settlement" in Gaelic. Return to Pennington Tree.

PALMER
A name meaning "pilgrim", literally one who had visited the Holy Land and returned with a palm leaf. Found throughout England. Return to Pennington Tree.

PENNINGTON
A Lancashire surname meaning either "the farm or settlement paying a low rent (penny toon)" or the "farm of the man nicknamed Pin or Peg". There is a town in Furness, Lancashire (now part of Cumbria) from where many Penningtons originate. They moved to Muncaster in Cumbria in the 1200s and Muncaster Castle is the Pennington family home. However, a branch of the family moved to South Lancashire a little later. The village of Pennington in Hampshire is apparently unconnected to the surname. Return to Pennington Tree.

PUTT
The West Midlands and West Country version of Pitt, meaning a "pit, hollow or excavation". Return to Pennington Tree.

ROBERTSON
A patronymic meaning "son of Robert" found throughout Britain but commonest in Scotland. The Scottish clan is Clan Donnachaidh ("son of Duncan") but Duncan's son Robert gave his name to most of the members of the clan. Return to MacLeod Tree.

ROWANTREE
A mainly Yorkshire name in origin, normally spelt Rowntree as a surname. The name refers quite simply to the rowan or mountain ash tree. Return to Pennington Tree.

SHAW
A mainly Northern English name meaning "copse, thicket or small wood". Return to Pennington Tree.

SHEARS
A name with several possible meanings  either "bright or beautiful", or "living at the boundary" or "scissor maker" or "from the shire". Return to Pennington Tree.

SMITH
The commonest surname in the English-speaking world, meaning "a blacksmith" or "metal-worker". Return to Pennington Tree.

SNELL
A mainly south-western surname, a nickname meaning "bold" or "brisk". Return to Pennington Tree.

STOVE
A name principally found in Orkney and Shetland, meaning "house" or "room". Return to Pennington Tree.

UPTON
A placename found in more than 30 places, meaning "upper farm" or "upper place", the name was commonest in the Midlands and south-east. Return to Pennington Tree.

VOGEL
A German name meaning "bird", pronounced "furgle" in German, but pronounced in an anglicised form in Britain and America. Return to Pennington Tree.

WHITFIELD
A frequently occuring surname and also place name found in several counties indicating a "chalky or limed field", although possibly also used to indicate any dry pasture. Commoner in this form than the more obvious version Whitefield. Return to Pennington Tree.

WHITTLE
A name meaning "white hill", commonest in the north of England but also found in the south-west and east Midlands. Return to Pennington Tree.