Ridlon

Ridlon · proper noun¹

1. German · derived fromRidlen
2. English todayRidlon

Probably a variant of German Ridlen.

Ridlon · proper noun²

The name “Ridlon” is a variation on the Scottish name “Redlon” that is peculiar to the United States. The name “Redlon” originated as the old Norse place name “Rauðland” — which translates to English as “Red Land” and originally referred to deposits of red sandstone in three distinct places around the island of Orkney. (The surname Redland is attached to all three places.) The name originally appeared in Orkney historical records in 1492 as “Raland”, but was recorded as “Redland” from 1595 onward. (It is possible that “Raland” was an initial attempt to translate the name into English and was adjusted for better accuracy in subsequent generations.) By the time Magnus Redlan (the initial progenitor of the entire family in the United States) arrived on the shores of what is now Maine (then Massachusetts Bay Colony) in the second decade of the 1700’s, the family name had already lingually shifted from “Redland” to “Redlan” to “Redlon”. After a few generations in the Colonies, further phonetic and lingual shifting changed the name to “Ridlon”, which it has remained ever since.