Whitney Family History
Whitney Name Meaning
English: habitational name from Whitney in Herefordshire the etymology of which is uncertain. The second element is Old English ēg ‘island piece of higher ground in a low-lying area’; the first appears to be hwītan which is either the genitive singular of an Old English byname Hwīta (meaning ‘white’) or the weak dative case (originally used after a preposition and article) of the adjective hwīt ‘white’. The name may also derive from Whitney (now Whitney Wood) in Stevenage (Hertfordshire) probably named from Old English hwītan ‘white’ + (ge)hæge ‘enclosure’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022