English: status name for someone who inherited land from an ancestor, rather than by feudal gift from an overlord, from Middle English, Old French (h)eritage ‘inherited property’ (Late Latin heritagium, from heres ‘heir’).
FOREBEARS The first known bearers of the name are John Heritage of Oxfordshire and John Erytage of Huntingdonshire, both recorded in the Hundred Rolls for 1279. The name also occurs early in Warwickshire, near the Oxfordshire border, and at least one present-day family of this name probably goes back to that source. All American bearers of the name seem to be descended from a single individual who emigrated from England in 1684.