English place name meaning 'settlement of Haering's people.'
Harrington is a distinguished English habitational surname that has made the transition into use as a given name, following the long tradition of noble family names crossing over into first-name usage. The name derives from any of several places called Harrington in Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, and Cumbria — settlements whose names were recorded in the Domesday Book and earlier medieval documents. The place-name itself comes from the Old English personal name Hering combined with tun (settlement or estate), meaning roughly "the settlement of Hering's people."
The -ing suffix in Old English indicated tribal or familial belonging. As a surname, Harrington appears throughout English history with remarkable frequency among the gentry and aristocracy. Sir John Harrington (1561–1612), the witty Elizabethan courtier and godson of Queen Elizabeth I, is credited with inventing one of the earliest flush toilets — a gadget he described with characteristic humor in his satirical work The Metamorphosis of Ajax.
The Earl of Harrington is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, and Harringtons have appeared in Parliament, the military, and the arts across four centuries. James Harrington (1611–1677) wrote Oceana, a political utopia that influenced Enlightenment thinkers and, through them, the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a given name, Harrington speaks to the contemporary fashion for using stately English surnames in the first-name position — alongside names like Whitmore, Sutton, or Pemberton.
It carries a patrician English confidence without the heaviness of an overtly classical name. The built-in nickname Harry gives it excellent accessibility, connecting the antique surname to one of the most beloved given names in the English-speaking world.