Huntington

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• English : habitational name from any of several places so called, named with the genitive plural huntena of Old English hunta ‘hunter’ + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’ or dūn ‘hill’ (the forms in -ton and -don having become inextricably confused). A number of bearers of this name may well derive it from Huntingdon, now in Cambridgeshire (formerly the county seat of the old county of Huntingdonshire), which is named from the genitive case of Old English hunta ‘huntsman’, perhaps used as a personal name, + dūn ‘hill’.
• A prominent American family of this name were founded by Simon Huntington, who himself never saw the New World, for he died in 1633 on the voyage to Boston, where his widow settled with her children. Their descendants include Jabez Huntington (1719–86), a wealthy West Indies trader, and Samuel Huntington (1731–96), who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Collis Potter Huntington (1821–1900) was an American railway magnate. Beginning with little education or money, he made a huge fortune, some of which he left to his nephew, Henry Huntington (1850–1927), who used the money to establish the Huntington library and art gallery in CA.