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Origin / History of the Browning Name

Browning is an ancient name of Anglo-Saxon origin, developed from the Olde English pre-7^th Century personal name ‘Bruning’, which was originally a patronymic form of the byname ‘Brun’, meaning brown, and which was often used as a nickname referring to the colour of a person's hair, complexion, or clothing.  The personal name Browning was, unusually, still in use after the Conquest, surviving until the 14^th Century.  Bruning de Cestretona is recorded in Cambridgeshire in 1086; Hugo Bruning appears in the ‘Pipe Rolls of Norfolk’ in 1198; and Brunyng Dypres and Brounyng Oteland are recorded in the Sussex Subsidy Rolls of 1296 and 1327 respectively.  Early examples of the surname include: William Brouning, in the 1291 Cambridgeshire Feet of Fines; and Richard Brouning, in the ‘Register of the Freemen of the City of York’ in 1522.  Perhaps the most notable bearer of the name was the English poet Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), who came of a family that had been settled in Dorset for five hundred years.   

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