Meaning & Origin of
the Anderton SurnameMeaning of the name Anderton:
The word Anderton is of Old English origin. "ton" means a settlement and it is where our modern word Town derives from. "Ander", I first thought was probably a corruption of the given name Andrew so the meaning would be "Andrew's Town or Village", although I have recently discovered that the origin comes from the Old English name Eanred:
Eanred is a very old Anglo-Saxon name. There was a king of Northumberland called Eanred, c.809-841. He is associated with a stone monument at Dore, near Sheffield, Yorkshire, which conmemorates the signing of a treaty in AD 829 between King Eanred of Northumbria and King Ecgbert of Wessex which recognises King Ecgbert as the first Overlord of England. Apart from coins from Eanred's reign, there is another early reference to the name, an Anglo-Saxon ring inscribed with the follwing words: Origin of the name Anderton:
The name originates in England at a time before surnames were hereditary. People were distiguished in the Middle Ages by the use of nick names like "Short" or "Sharp", by patronyms or father's names like "Johnson" or "Peterson", by their profession like "Taylor" or "Smith", or by the place they came from. At this time anyone from the place called Anderton could be called "of Anderton" or with the French "de Anderton".
These names gradually started to become hereditary and were passsed from father to son, even though the son did not now come from the village of Anderton.
To find the origin of the Anderton name, then, we must look for a place called Anderton in England. In fact there appear to be three villages called Anderton, two in the North West of England. One in the county of Cheshire, not far from Chester and the other in Lancashire not far from Wigan. The third is located in Cornwall, in the South West of England. Most genealogical researchers however, seem to coincide in stating that the name originates from the Lancahsire village and indeed most Andertons today seem to be able to trace their origins back to Lancashire. So where exactly is the village of
Anderton as a given name?
Anderton seems to be a relatively popular given name in the United States. Guides to help parents choose their child's name list it with some quite extraordinary meanings! Both as a boy's given name And as a girl's given name!
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