This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from either of the places called 'Boddington' in Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire. The place in Gloucestershire near Cheltenham is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Botintone' and 'Botingtune', and means 'the settlement of Bota's people', derived from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name 'Bota', messenger, with the suffix '-ing', indicating people, family of, and 'tun', village, settlement. The place in Northamptonshire near Banbury appears in the Domesday Book as 'Botendone', and means 'Bota's hill', from the personal name 'Bota' as before with 'dun', hill, down, mountain. The modern surname from these places can be found as Boddington and Buddington. The marriage of Francis Buddington and Elizabeth Crow was recorded at St. Mary's, Minster on Thanet, Kent, on February 18th 1797, while their daughter, Elizabeth's christening record in the same church on August 18th 1799 appears as 'Elizabeth Boddington'. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Botintone, which was dated 1086, The Domesday Book, Sussex, during the reign of King William 1, 'The Conqueror', 1066-1087. 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.

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