Sterlington
Sterlington, as a family name, may have been formed from sterling and ton. A sterling was a silver penny, probably from the word sterre (star), because of the stars which appeared in the design of certain Norman coins, together with the diminutive suffix -ling.
In later history the meaning of sterling broadened to money having the quality of the sterling, then to English money in general. A pound sterling was originally a pound weight of sterlings, equalling about 240 coins.
As with many place names the ending ton was probably an abbreviation of the word town, as for example, in Binghamton - Bingham Town, Charleston - Charles Town, Washington - Washing Town. Names ending in ...ton are mostly based on the Saxon word tun meaning farmstead. Often the prefix is the name of the owner.
Some families in North America have the surname Sterlington but it does not appear to be common and is quite rare in Europe. A check of around 60 million names in the UK Electoral Roll on UK Info [1] in 2005 returned no registered persons with the name Sterlington.
[edit] People
- Ronald Sterlington, American bodybuilder
[edit] Places
In the United States:
- Sterlington, Louisiana
- Sterlington, New York, a location near the village of Sloatsburg
[edit] References
 |
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
