Whitney

Girl name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• English : habitational name from a place in Herefordshire, the etymology of which is uncertain. The second element is Old English ēg ‘island’, ‘piece of higher ground in a low-lying area’; the first appears to be hwītan, which is either the genitive singular of an Old English byname Hwīta (meaning ‘white’), or the weak dative case (originally used after a preposition and article) of the adjective hwīt ‘white’.
• John Whitney came from London, England, to Watertown, MA, in 1635, and had numerous prominent descendents.

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