This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the thin,' i.e. lean, slender. Middle English thinne and thymic.

'My tale is don, for my wit is but thinne.': Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. compare Thick, Large, Small, Bigg, Little, Fatt, &c. The old orthography has been maintained in this name. For a strange but unconfirmed story of a local origin, viz. 'John of th' Inne,' one of the Inns of Court, v. Lower's Patronymic Britannia Until better proof is shown we may be content with the satisfactory derivation given above.

Thomas Thynne, Northamptonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

1577. Francis Thynne, Wiltshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1583. Henry Thynne, Wiltshire: ibid.

1758. Married — John Thinn and Sarah Gee: St. George, Hanover Square.

(English) Thin [Middle English thinne, thynne, Old English þynne] Thomas Thynne.—Hand. Rolls.

Ó Teimhin A north Clare name which has no connexion with the English Thin or Thynne. MIF 257; Map (O’Tyne) Clare

Ó Teimhin A north Clare name which has no connexion with the English Thin or Thynne. MIF 257; Map (O’Tyne) Clare

The family of Thynne are a branch of the ancient house of Botfield or Botevile. The origin of this surname is very singular. About the reign of Edward IV. the elder branch of the Boteviles or Botfields of Stretton in Shropshire, where the family had flourished from the XIII. century, began, for some unexplained reason, to write themselves De le Inn, De la Inne, and Of the Inne; and this last form, in a generation or two, settled down into Thynne. Mr. Ralph Bigland, Somerset Herald, affirms that the alias originated with John de Bottevile, who resided at one of the Inns of Court, and from thence was named John of th' Inne, otherwise Thynne. But the historian of the family remarks, that there is no evidence that the person referred to ever dwelt at any of the inns of court, though it is certain that "he lived in the family house at Church-Stretton, and that he was familiarly known as John o' th' Inne, which, abbreviated, became Thynne, though John de la Inne de Botfelde, was his usual appellation." It appears that this mansion was anciently called The Inn, and hence the name. From this elder branch of the Botfeldes sprang the Thynnes (Marquis of Bath) and from the younger branch came the family of Botfield. See Stemmata Botevilliana. By Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P., &c. London. 4to. 1858.

Or Goyon, a branch of the Breton house of the barons of Roche-Goyon, Marquises of Lonray. William Goyon c. 1070 witnessed the charters of John and Gelduin de Dol to St. Florent, Saumur. Eudes or Hugh Goyon, his son, attested a charter of St. Michel 1075 (Des Bois). This Eudes Goyon, or his son Alan, came to England, and was provided for in Salop by Alan Fitz-Flaald, who also came from the same locality (See Stuart). Alan Goyon held Upton, Salop, from Fitz-Alan in 1138 (Eyton, i. 140,141). He had: 1. Adam de Upton, living 1165, a tenant of Fitz-Alan, whose son, William de Upton, was living 1180; 2. John de Upton, who was father of Walter Fitz-John, who occurs in 1190. His son, William Fitz-Walter, in 1200 claimed land in Botesfield, or Botevile, Salop, against the Templars, by a writ of Mort d’ancestre, his mother having been an heiress, from whom he claimed (Eyton's History of Salop). He appears to have recovered this estate; for William and Gregory de Botesfield, his sons, are mentioned 1234-1255 as involved in disputes with the Templars of Botesfield (Stemmata Bottevilliana, 19). From this time the family of De Botfield, or Botevyle, is constantly mentioned in Salop, and bore barry of ten, the Goyons of Bretagne bearing barry of eight (Lobineau, Hist. Bret. ii. plates). The name was changed by popular use to ‘Del Inne,’ the name of the family mansion near Church Stretton; some branches, however, continuing to bear the name of Botfield. Hence the Thynnes, Marquises of Bath, and Barons Carteret.

(English), anciently Of th' inne, Of the Inn of Court.