What is the origin of the name linville?

can anyone please tell me the origin of my last name linville?i dont know anyone on my fathers side to be able to ask.

What is the origin of the name linville?
Many people coming here are not interested in anything other than the historical origin of their surname, which is certainly their option.


On the other hand, most of us that have been doing research for any length of time, encourage new people to not be overly concerned about tracing a surname. Genealogy is focused on learning who the actual ancestors were (and sometimes, that can even turn out to be a different name entirely).


Research involves finding historical records and documentation for each generation. Obviously, when you get back into the 1800s or before, there wouldn't be anyone to ask anyway. Since you mention not knowing anyone on dad's side.. it would seem you have not been involved with his family. Records relating to living persons are restricted in many situations, to protect privacy rights. If possible to find the names of HIS parents (if they are dead), you can sometimes use them to pick up the trail in records that are open, such as cemetery, census, so forth.
Reply:Linville


Of English origin: probably a habitational name from a lost or unidentified place, perhaps in France. The surname is not found in present-day English records, but is recorded in Hampshire (also in the forms Lenvill, Linvel) in the 17th century. Perhaps it is an altered form of English Lindfield or Lingfield, habitational name from a place so called in Sussex, altered by false analogy with the alternation in Norman names between -ville and -field.


Dictionary of American Family
Reply:One of my mother's dear friends maiden name is Linville. I don't suppose you've ever been to Lorena, Texas?





Ancestry.com incidentally gives two "Places of Origin" for Linville--England (2) and Denmark (2). As for "Ports of Departure," 43 percent of all Linvilles left from either Liverpool, England, and Queenstown, Ireland, while 29 percent left from Copenhagen, Denmark, and, curiously enough, 29 percent entered the United States from Aspinwall, Panama. In 1920, the majority of Linvilles living in the United States (between 65 and 128) lived in Missouri, Kentucky, and Indiana.