Recorded in several forms including Skelington and Skillington, this is an English locational surname. It originates from the village of Skillington in the county of Lincolnshire, and is unusual in that most place names in this county own something to the Danish Vikings of the 8th century whilst this name would seem to be pure Anglo-Saxon of the 6th century. The earliest recordings are much later than these dates in that few, if any written charters, survive from the period after the end of the Roman Period in 410 a.d. through to the Norman-French of the 11th century. In this case the village is first recorded in the year 1067 as Scillintune, and in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Schillintune. It is said that the name probably derives from the Olde English word 'sciell' meaning resounding, but used in a transferred sense to describe a fast flowing river. If this is so then the place name and hence the surname, means the village by the fast flowing river. The first recording of the surname may be that of Johannes Skyfflyngtun in the Poll Tax rolls of Yorkshire in 1379. Later examples from surviving church registers include those of Nicholas Skillington recorded at St Andrews Holborn on July 23rd 1682, whilst on June 22nd 1691, he is recorded as Nicholas Skellington at St Bartholomew the Great, both in the city of London.

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