This is an English medieval locational surname. Recorded as Cossentine, Cossington and Cosington, it originates from all or any of the three villages in the counties of Kent, Somerset, or Leicestershire called Cossington. All seem to have been recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, and all seem to have the same meaning of the home (tun) of the Cossa or Cusa people. Cossa was an early personal name whose meaning seems to be lost, but is probably from Olde Norse, and may mean a bird of prey, possibly a sea gull. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say a surname that was given to a person after they left their original village to settle somewhere else, and were best identified by being called after their original home. Spelling being at best indifferent and local dialects very thick, sometimes lead to the creation of "sounds like" spellings. In this case recordings from the city of London include Henry Cossington who married Martha Fletcher at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on March 28th 1830, and Richard Cossentine who married Eliza Harrison at St Peters, Stepney, on July 29th 1872.

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