Harrington Family History
Harrington Surname Meaning
English: habitational name from any of the three places called Harrington (Cumberland, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire). The Cumberland placename derives from the Old English personal name Hæfer + Old English connective -ing- + tūn ‘farmstead, estate’. The Lincolnshire placename derives from the Old English personal name Hearra + Old English connective -ing- + tūn. The Northamptonshire derives from an Old English personal name Hǣthhere + Old English connective -ing- + tūn ‘farmstead, estate’. Compare Herendeen.
Irish: adopted as an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hArrachtáin ‘descendant of Arrachtán’, a personal name from a diminutive of arrachtach ‘mighty, powerful’. Irish: in Kerry, this name was adopted as an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hIongardail, later Ó hUrdáil, ‘descendant of Iongardal’, a personal name of uncertain origin.
Irish: sometimes a variant of Harrity.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022