Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
Waddington Coat of Arms / Waddington Family CrestThe surname of WADDINGTON is of the locational group of surnames one who came from Waddington, a village and parish near Clitheroe, County York. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. The name was derived from the Old English word WADAHAMME, and literally meant the dweller by the wheat hill, from residence nearby. Early records of the name mention WIDITUN (without surname) who was listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1066. WADINGHAM (without surname) was recorded in County Surrey in the year 1115. Laurenius de Wadyngton, who was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. George Waddington of Leyland, was listed in the Wills at Chester in the year 1588. Mathew Waddington of Oxford, registered at Oxford University in the year 1610. Many factors contributed to the establishment of a surname system. For generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066 a very few dynasts and magnates passed on hereditary surnames, but most of the population, with a wide choice of first-names out of Celtic, Old English, Norman and Latin, avoided ambiguity without the need for a second name. As society became more stabilized, there was property to leave in wills, the towns and villages grew and the labels that had served to distinguish a handful of folk in a friendly village were not adequate for a teeming slum where perhaps most of the householders were engaged in the same monotonous trade, so not even their occupations could distinguish them, and some first names were gaining a tiresome popularity, especially Thomas after 1170. The hereditary principle in surnames gained currency first in the South, and the poorer folk were slower to apply it. By the 14th century however, most of the population had acquired a second name. An eminent member of the name was William Henry Waddington (1826-94) the French statesman and archaeologist, born in Paris, the son of an Englishman, who became a French subject. He was educated chiefly in England, and devoted himself to study and travel in Asia Minor, Syria and Cyprus. He became a member of the national assembly and the senate and was ambassador at London from 1883 until 1892. This name was taken to Ireland by settlers and the associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. Registered in Ireland, County Wexford. |
