This is an English locational surname. Recorded as Raiston, Reaston, Reastone and Reston, it is locational, either from the three villages called 'Reston' in the Border country and Cumbria, or from the some what flatter lands of Lincolnshire, or from a now 'lost' medieval village of similar spelling. The village name and hence the later surname, translates from the pre 7th century Olde English as 'the place (tun) amongst the brush wood (rispe)'. Some five thousand British surnames are believed to originate from 'lost' villages, so whilst unusual as a phenomena, it is not unique. Because of the variant forms of spelling there is a possibility that some nameholders may derive from the lost village source, although the development of the recordings suggests that this is unlikely. Early examples of the surname recordings taken from surviving church registers of the diocese of Greater London include: Dorytye Restone, who married William Pratt at the church of St Michael Basisshaw, on October 14th 1599, Charles Reastone and his wife Dorothy, who were witnesses at St Andrews church, Holborn, on November 14th 1727, and John Raistone, whose son John James, was christened at St Sepulchre church, city of London, on June 24th 1764.

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