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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from any of the various places so named, for example in Norfolk, North Yorkshire, and East Yorkshire. The two villages of this name in Norfolk are recorded in Domesday Book as Ristuna, and are from Old English hrīs ‘brushwood’ + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; Ruston Parva in East Yorkshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Roreston, is named from the genitive case of the Old Norse byname Hrór meaning ‘vigorous’ + Old English tūn. Ruston in North Yorkshire is Rostune in Domesday Book, apparently from Old English hrōst ‘roost’, ‘roof’ + tūn, referring to a building with an unusual roof.

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