Quinton

Quinton is generally considered the transferred use of an Anglo-Saxon surname originating from two possible sources. First recorded as Quintone in the Domesday Book of 1086, the name comes from the Olde English words “cwen” meaning “queen” and “tun” representing an “enclosure, estate or farm”. Alternately, Quinton is a modified respelling of the Old Roman name Quintinus which is derivative of the Latin “quintus” meaning ‘fifth’. Quintus was a given name during Antiquity and usually bestowed upon the fifth-born child or a child born in the fifth month of the year. Saint Quentin was a 3rd century saint who was a Roman citizen martyred in Gaul (present day Saint-Quentin, Aisne in northern France) for preaching Christianity to the pagans and converting a considerable amount of Gauls. His cult grew during the Middle Ages, but particularly in France where he made his largest impact and so a sizable number of place names are so-called in honor of St. Quentin. According to legend, after his beheading, Quentin’s body was unceremoniously thrown into river bank by Roman soldiers. About 50 years later a blind-lady discovered the corpse and severed head apparently intact. She claimed to have been lead to his gravesite through prayer. She took the body to a hillside for a proper burial and her eyesight was (of course) miraculously restored. A basilica was erected at his tomb a few hundred years later.