The surname King has two origins. One is the Old English word Cyng, ‘a king’, which was used in Old English times as a personal name and may have given rise to a surname. The other, and by far the more common, is a nickname ‘king’ found in many villages in medieval England. Experts believe that the most common designation of the name was for men who governed the rituals of harvest-time in medieval villages. Sometimes these rites were celebrated with annual pageants and masques, where the same parts were often taken by the same individual year after year. Thus he who played the part of king often found the name attached to him.

Alternatively the nickname may have been an ironic reference to the overbearing, swaggering manner of someone in the village. Or it may have been used as an occupational name for someone in the King’s service-i.e. a servant of the King, a King’s messenger, or sometimes simply a tax collector.

In extremely rare cases, it is thought that the name King was given to an illegitimate offspring of royal descent. However, many authorities doubt whether this ever happened.

The surname King has many related names. Most of them are place names-given to someone who came from a particular place. The best known of these are Kingsbury (places in Middlesex and Somerset), Kingsford (Hampshire and Suffolk), and Kingston (the official name of Hull, and the town in Surrey).

Variants on the name King appear in many of the early records, but perhaps the earliest reference to the name as we know it is in the Pipe Rolls for Cambridgeshire. There in 1177 one Geoffrey King is mentioned.

Martin Luther King (1929—68) was the black American civil rights leader whose example did more to advance his people’s rights than any other of his generation. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but just four years later was killed by an assassin’s bullet.

British botanist Francis Ward Kingdon (1885—1958) discovered and began cultivation of the Himalayan blue poppy. In half a century of pioneering expeditions he made 25 journeys to the eastern Himalayas.

Unconventional Louisiana governor Huey Long was nicknamed ‘The Kingfish’ by his poverty-stricken adulatory followers, to signify his supremacy in their affections.

American politician John Alsop King persuaded the 1855 state convention of the Whig Party to adopt ‘Republican’ as the party’s name. It has remained that ever since.

William Mackenzie King (1874—1950) was Canada’s Prime Minister a remarkable three times during his 30 years as head of the Liberal Party.

President Charles King of Liberia was elected into office in 1928 by a massive 600,000 majority. It was an amazing feat in a country whose electorate was then just 15,000.

King takes pride of place when it comes to name-related towns, cities and geographic features. In all, 106 towns and cities in the United Kingdom are King-related. These range from Kingarth to Kingswelton and include 9 Kingstons and 7 Kingswoods. The US has 45 such towns and cities, Canada has 4, Australia 10, New Zealand 2, and South Africa 5. Kingston is Jamaica’s capital. Numerous geographic features bear the generic name or are named for specific kings (King George’s Reservoir, King Edward River, King Lear Mountain, King Leopold range, etc.) With about 136,000 namesakes King is the 34th most popular surname in England and Wales. There are over 7,000 Kings in Scotland where it is 98th in popularity. In Ireland it is estimated that with about 9,000, King is the 86th most popular surname. King is notably popular in and around Bristol where an estimated one in about 368 families bears the name. In descending numerical order Leicester, London and Coventry are other King strongholds. Around the world Kings are most common in Sydney (one in 499 families), Auckland (one in 520) and Wellington (one in 524). The United States has more Kings than the entire population of Bristol-an estimated total of just over 456,000 makes this their 28th most popular surname.