Rimington

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving form the place called 'Rimington' near Gisburn in West Yorkshire. The place name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Renitone', in the 'Yorkshire Charters' of 1182 as 'Rimingtona', and in the Yorkshire Fines Court Rolls of 1244 as 'Rymmigton'. The name means 'settlement on the boundary stream', derived from the old name of the stream or brook on which 'Rimington' stands, the Old English pre 7th Century 'Riming', boundary stream, from 'rima', rim, border, bank, with 'tun', settlement, village, enclosure. Locational surnames were usually given to the lord of the manor, and especially to those former inhabitants who moved to another area and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. The modern surname can be found as Rimington, Rimmington and Remington. The marriage of Joan Rimmington and Richard Laycock was recorded at Monk Frystone in Yorkshire on December 3rd 1556. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alan de Rymyngton, which was dated 1335, in the Register of the Freemen of the City of York, Yorkshire, during the reign of King Edward 111, known as 'The Father of the Navy', 1327-1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.