Origin
Thorpe : English (mainly Yorkshire and Lancashire): from Middle English thorp(e) ‘village hamlet farmstead’ (Old Norse Old English thorp ‘secondary settlement’). The surname may be topographic for someone who lived in such a settlement or habitational for someone from any of several places called Thorp(e) which are most frequent in Yorkshire the Midlands and East Anglia. Compare Throop.
Achurch : from Achurch in Thorpe Achurch (Northants) which is recorded as Asechirce in 1086 Achirche in the 12th century and Aschyrche in the 13th century. The place-name derives from Old English cirice ‘church’ probably with a personal name as the first element either an unrecorded Old English *Asa or the well-recorded Old Scandinavian Ási (male) or Ása (female).
Childerstone : from a lost or unidentified place possibly in Suffolk. The place-name could be a compound of Old English cildra + Old English stān ‘stone’ with reference perhaps to a free standing boulder. In the surname the first element alternates between Childre- and Childe- apparently representing Old English cildra and cilda two different genitive plurals of Old English cild ‘child young (noble)man boy monk’ probably also ‘male heir’ (of any rank). Alternatively the second element is Old English tūn ‘estate’. Old English cild is sometimes compounded with tūn as is clear in early spellings of Chillaton (Devon) Chilton (Berks Somerset) and Chilton Street (Suffolk) as well as Chilson (Oxon) Chilston (Kent) and Chilstone (Herefs) which retain a singular genitival -s. If the original forms of Childerstone were *Cildratūn and *Cildatūn they could have alluded to joint ownership by several male heirs perhaps sokemen or free tenants as recorded for Childerley (Cambs). See Childerley. In that case the medial -s- is not original to the name but a later tautologous genitive added to Middle English childe and childre or childer. Chilton Street in Suffolk (Childton' in the late 12th cent.) is about 13 miles from Kettlebaston and Thorpe Morieux where the surname is first recorded but relevant early spellings with Childe(s)- or Childre(s)- have not been found.
Fawthrop : perhaps from Thorpe in Burnsall (WR Yorks) with which members of the Fauvel (see Favell) family had a connection in the medieval period. That place may once have been known as Fauvelthorpe ‘settlement (see Thorpe) owned or occupied by the Fauvel family’. Members of that family were also resident in Broughton (WR Yorks) which is where the surname Fawthrop apparently originated.
Fendick : from Middle English fen ‘fen marsh’ + dik(e) dich(e) ‘ditch dyke’. The surname may be topographic for someone who lived by a drainage dyke in fenland or toponymic for someone from a place so named such as Thorpe Fendykes (Lincs).
Landymore : from Landermere in Thorpe le Soken (Essex) which is recorded as Landimer in 1211. The place-name derives from Old English land-gemǣre ‘boundary’.
Laythorpe : from Laythorpe the former name of the settlement south of The Beck in Kirkby la Thorpe (Lincs) which is recorded as Ledulftorp in 1086 and Leilthorp in the 12th century. The place-name derives from the Old Scandinavian personal name Leiðulfr + Old Scandinavian þorp ‘secondary settlement outlying farmstead’.
Nesbitt : Scottish (Borders) northern English and northern Irish: habitational name from Nesbit (part of Nesbit and Thorpe Bulmer in Durham) Nesbit in Doddington or Nesbitt in Stamfordham (both in Northumberland) or Nesbit in Edrom (Berwickshire). All of these placenames appear to derive from Old English nēs or nesu ‘nose’ in the sense ‘promontory’ or ‘projecting piece of land in the bend of a river’ + Old English byht ‘bend curve (in a river)’. This surname has been established in Ireland since the early 17th century.
More
Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England
Subject to the Terms and Conditions of Ancestry
