This surname is of mixed British and Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from a place thus called, situated on the river Erring in Northumberland. The river name is British (pre-Roman) and related to the Welsh "arian", silvery, bright, and "ton" derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "tun", enclosure, settlement; hence, "settlement on the silvery stream". Locational names were originally given to the lord of the manor, or as a means of identification to those who left their place of origin to settle elsewhere. Regional and dialectal differences subsequently produced several variations on the original spelling of the name, and in 16th Century Church Registers of Yorkshire and Northumberland, the surname is found as Haryngton, Herrington, Erington and Errington. On August 30th 1573, Elynor Errington, an infant, was christened in St. Nicholas Parish, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland. A notable namebearer was John Edward Errington (1806 - 1862), a civil engineer, who constructed harbour works in Greenock (1841), and brought forward the entire system of railways from Lancaster to Inverness. In 1861, he became vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. A Coat of Arms granted to the Errington family of Northumberland, is a silver shield, two bars, in chief three azure escallops, the Crest being a red cock, combed and wattled black. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ellen Haryngton, which was dated 1510, in the "Birth Registers of York City", Yorkshire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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.