Anyone know what the surname Kingdon means and its origins?

Question

Note: No, it is not spelled 'Kingdom', it is Kingdon - it's my mother's maiden name.

Answer 1

Chince gives a good explanation of a name origin. There's another way it could have evolved also. In your family history, look for a place called King's town, or Kingston. My people came from Hoddeston, and their name evolved to Hoddesdon and then Hodson and finally Hodgdon.

Answer 2

Kingdon : It's an English (Devon) place name from High Kingdon in Alverdiscott, Devon. The name elements are from Old English cyning = king + dun = hill for a literal translation of 'king's hill.'

Answer 3

Kingdon
This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a
locational name either from the parish of Kingsdon near Somerton
in Somerset, so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century
"cyning", king, with "dun", hill, mountain, or from any of three
minor places named with the same elements. These are Higher
Kingdon in Alverdiscott, Devon; Kendon in North Bovey, Devon,
and Kendon, a locality in the Abercarn urban district of
onmouthshire. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally
given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and
especially as a means of identification to those who left their
birthplace to settle elsewhere. Regional and dialectal
differences subsequently produced several variations on the
original spelling of the name, which, in the modern idiom, is
found as: Kingdon, Kindon and Kingdom. On November 21st 1545,
John Kyngdom and Chrystian Belmonte were married at North
Molton, Devonshire, and on June 16th 1578, John Kingdome married
an Anne Berd at Crewkerne, Somerset. The marriage of Agnes
Kingdom to William Gamons took place at Chittlehampton, Devon,
on November 23rd 1698. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is
an azure shield with three gold banners bendways in pale,
flotant to the sinister. A red griffin's head, emerging from a
gold ducal coronet, and holding in the beak a gold key, forms
the Crest. The first recorded spelling of the family name is
shown to be that of
Johane Kyngdon, which was dated
November 7th 1539, marriage to John Byrd, at North Molton,
Devonshire, during the reign of
King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547.

Answer 4

possibly it originates from someone who was a favourite of the king but i think it's more likely arrived at through slavery .
when slaves were freed it was usual to ask them to make up a surname so they could be put on record (slaves were property and so had no surname) many choose the name of their capture some the name of the place they had lived but a great many understood that someone called king was the most important boss of all and so it amused them to adopt that name .

so a slave named don adopted king when freed and the with little understanding of the concept of surnames chose to call himself king don , his children then inherited Joe and Mary kingdon .

please note this is general knowledge i haven't looked it up so i could be wrong .

Answer 5

Kingdon
English (Devon): habitational name from Higher Kingdon in Alverdiscott, Devon, or from Kendon in North Bovey, Devon. Both are named in Old English as ‘the king’s hill’, from cyning (see King) or cyne- ‘royal’ + dun ‘hill’.

Answer 6

its spelled kingdom.