WASHINGTON

(male) Especially U.S.: transferred use of the surname of the first president of the United States, George Washington (1732–99), whose family came originally from Northamptonshire in England. They had been established in Virginia since 1656. The surname in this case is derived from the village of Washington in Co. Durham (now Tyne and Wear), so called from Old English Wassingtūn ‘settlement associated with Wassa’.