Mainstone Family History
Mainstone Surname Meaning
From Mainstone Court in Pixley (Herefs) and perhaps also from any of several places with similar names of various origins such as Mainstone in Egg Buckland and Mainstone in Heanton Punchardon (both Devon), Mainstone (Shrops), Mainstone in Romsey (Hants), Mainstone Farm in Buxworth (Derbys), and Mainstone Gate in Chobham (Surrey).
The Herefs, Shrops, and Surrey place-names derive from Old English mægen-stān ‘huge stone monolith’. The Derbys and Devon place-names may derive from Old English mægen-stān or from a British word related to Welsh maen ‘stone’ + Old English stān ‘stone’.
The Hants place-name derives from the Anglo-Norman French and Middle English personal name Maheu (genitive Maheues) + Middle English toun ton ‘town, village, settlement’.
There has probably been some confusion with Manston.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016
