Childerstone Family History

From a lost or unidentified place possibly in Suffolk. The place-name could be a compound of Old English cildra + Old English stān ‘stone’ with reference perhaps to a free standing boulder. In the surname, the first element alternates between Childre- and Childe- apparently representing Old English cildra and cilda two different genitive plurals of Old English cild ‘child, young (noble) man, boy, monk’, probably also ‘male heir’ (of any rank).

Alternatively, the second element is Old English tūn ‘estate’. Old English cild is sometimes compounded with tūn as is clear in early spellings of Chillaton (Devon), Chilton (Berks, Somerset), and Chilton Street (Suffolk), as well as Chilson (Oxon), Chilston (Kent), and Chilstone (Herefs), which retain a singular genitival -s.

If the original forms of Childerstone were *Cildratūn and *Cildatūn, they could have alluded to joint ownership by several male heirs, perhaps sokemen or free tenants, as recorded for Childerley (Cambs). See Childerley.

In that case, the medial -s- is not original to the name but a later tautologous genitive added to Middle English childe and childre or childer. Chilton Street in Suffolk (Childton' in the late 12th cent.) is about 13 miles from Kettlebaston and Thorpe Morieux, where the surname is first recorded, but relevant early spellings with Childe(s)- or Childre(s)- have not been found.