This interesting and unusual surname is an English locational name It probably originates from a now 'lost' medieval village, or from any of the places called 'Overton' and 'Ovington' in Essex, Yorkshire and Oxford. What is almost certain is that the name translates from the Olde English pre 7th Century as the farm (tun) of the people (ing) called the 'Ufa', although it is possible that it may mean 'The farm on the river bank'. In the medieval times place names were adopted as a means of identification, and these early recordings usually applied to the 'Lord of the Manor' - as below. Later recordings tended to apply to people after they moved, voluntarily or otherwise, to another area. When this happened they were given as their identification the name of their former homestead. In this case examples of the surname recordings taken from the church registers include Eliza Overington who married Richard Robinson in 1727 at Bilton in Yorkshire, whilst in 1633 Anne Overington married John Worral at Manchester Cathedral, in the county palatine of Lancashire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugh de Overtuna, which was dated circa 1150, Staffordshire Chartulary, during the reign of King Stephen, known as the "Count of Blois", 1135 - 1154. 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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