Eno Family History

Altered form of French Canadian Hénault (see Henault) and in some cases possibly also of the same French surname (see Henault). Compare Ano. Altered form of French (mainly Nord) Henno: variant of Hanno. Compare Enos.

English: most probably a variant of Henney with loss of initial H- and substitution of -o(w) for final -ey. The Lincolnshire name is concentrated in villages up to a dozen miles north-west of Boston where Henney is recorded through the 15th century. If this explanation is correct the pronunciation of the modern surname suggests that Great or Little Henney in Essex (just south of Sudbury in Suffolk) is its most likely source.

English: perhaps a habitational name from Aynho (Northamptonshire), a compound of the Old English personal name Æga (genitive singular Ægan) + Old English hōh ‘hill spur’, spelled Enoo in 1559.

Welsh: occasionally in counties bordering Wales a variant of Enos with loss of final -s. Cornish: variant of Henna, a habitational name from Hennowe (in Saint Ewe Cornwall adjacent to Goran and Mevagissey), spelled Hennah in the 18th and 19th centuries.

West African (Nigeria): from a personal name found among the Ibibio and Efik peoples meaning ‘gift’.