Origin
BRET : Probably contracted from Breton, a Briton; brette, French, a long sword; brat and bretyn, in the Welsh, signify an urchin. View the LONG results.
BRETT : Probably contracted from Breton, a Briton; brette, French, a long sword; brat and bretyn, in the Welsh, signify an urchin.
GARDINER : This name may be derived from the same roots as Gairden. It is probably, however, the same as Gardener, the orthography having been changed. Camden says, Wise was the man that told my Lord Bishop (Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester) that his name was not Gardener as the English pronounce it, but Gardiner, with the French accent, and therefore a gentleman. The principal family of the Gardiners in this country derive their descent from Lion Gardiner, a native of Scotland, who served under General Fairfax in the Low Countries as an engineer. He was sent to this country in 1635, by Lords Say and Sele, Brooke, and others, to build a fort, and make a settlement on their grant at the mouth of the Connecticut river. He built the fort at Saybrook, which name he gave to it after the names of his patrons Lords Say and Brooke. His eldest son, David, born at Fort Saybrook, in 1636, was the first white child born in Connecticut He afterward bought from the Indians the island in Long Island Sound, called by them Monchonack, and by the English the Isle of Wight, paying for it. as the old records say, a black dog, a gun, and some Dutch blankets. He removed there with his family, and gave it the name of Gardiner's Island. The island still remains in the possession of the family, having descended in a direct line from Lion Gardiner.
KINGHORN : Local. A borough in Fifeshire, Scotland. The name is derived from the Gaelic Cean-gorn or gorm, the blue head, from the adjoining promontory. It is fancifully suggested by one writer that as the Scottish kings long had a residence in the neighborhood, the name may have been suggested by the frequent winding of the king's horn when he sallied out to the chase in this neighborhood.
LAING : Scottish dialect for long.
LING : (Teutonic.) English, long, heath; also, a species of long grass; a long, slender fish.
SEAFORTH : Local. The name of a projection of the sea on the east coast of Lewis, on the Long Island, Scotland.
SLADE : Local. A long flat piece or slip of ground between hills.
TICHBOURNE : Anciently At Itchen-bourne, that is, a person settled at the head of a fountain of the river Itchen. The river Itchen is in Southampton county, England. At the head of the river, near Alresford, the first ancestor of this family resided, long before the Conquest.
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