Etymology

Whitney

W4H4I1T1N1E1Y4

Today it means: A habitational surname from Middle English. Full definition →

Old English hwītan
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The story

  1. Old English · derived fromhwītan
  2. English todayWhitney

From Old English hwītan, dative of hwīt (“white”) + īeġ (“island”), "white island".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.