Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from places so called in Devon, Hampshire, Leicestershire, and Somerset. The first and last derive their name from the Celtic river name Exe, while the place in Hampshire, recorded in 940 as East Seaxnatune, is named from Old English Ēastseaxe ‘East Saxon’, and the Leicestershire place name is from Old English oxa ‘of the oxen’. In each case the final element is from Old English tūn ‘settlement’.