Allington

Recorded as Aldington, Allington, and Ollington, this is an English locational surname. It is understood to originate from any of the villages called Allington in the counties of Dorset, Kent, Wiltshire and Lincoln. The place name and hence the later surname means "The dweller at the place of the Aella people", the latter being a well known pre 7th century Olde English tribe, who were widely recorded. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes for whatever reason, and moved somewhere else. The simplest method of identifying any such stranger was to call him or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came. Spelling being at best erratic and local dialects very thick, soon lead to the development of alternative spellings, often far removed from the original source. In this case William de Allyngton is recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Somerset in 1273, Medcalf Allington at the church of St James, the Apostle in the city of London, on October 30th 1573, whilst Mary Ann Ollington, the daughter of William Ollington, was christened at Christ Church, Spitalfields, also in the city of London, on March 22nd 1846.