Recorded in several forms including Bointon, Boynton and Boyington, this is an English locational surname. However spelt, it originates from the village of Boynton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, an ancient place first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086. At that time the spelling was given as Bouintone, and the translation as the 'tun' of the Bofa people, a local tribe who also inhabited the village of Bainton. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people for easy indentification, after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. This may for a few have been the next town or village, but more often was far away in the city of London, then as now, the mecca for those with dreams. The surname is well recorded in both the surviving registers of the county of Yorkshire, and those of the diocese of Greater London. Early examples include: Francis Bointon, a witness at Wintringham, Yorkshire, on June 1st 1560, Eleanor Boynton, who was christened at Filey in Yorkshire on January 5th 1585, Agnes Boyington who married Richard Hampton at Harefield in Middlesex, on September 29th 1587, and Elizabeth Boyington, christened at Settringtron, Yorkshire, on May 27th 1736.