Newborn

Recorded as Newborn, Newbourn, Newbourne, Newburn, Newburne and probably others, it is locational and almost certainly English. If so we believe that it originates either from the village of Newbourn in the county of Suffolk, or from Newbourn in the county of Cheshire. Both derive from the pre 7th century Olde English "Neowe burna" meaning new stream, although only the Suffolk village appears in the famous Domesday Book of 1086. This village then recorded as Neubrunna must have stood and presumably still does, by a river which had changed its course before Domesday. Rivers change their course regularly unless prevented by the works of man, and were able to do so much more often in the olden times, which may be why so many nameholders left for London. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given as easy identification of a stranger, one who had left his or sometimes her, former village and thereafter was called after it. This surname is well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London from the early Stuart period, with as examples John Newborne who married Jone Fisher at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on July 25th 1616, and William Newburn christened at St Mary's Rotherhithe, in the county of Kent, on April 24th 1812