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1. English, Scottish, Irish, French,
Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish (Martín), Italian (Venice),
etc.: from a personal name (Latin Martinus, a derivative of Mars,
genitive Martis, the Roman god of fertility and war, whose name may
derive ultimately from a root mar ‘gleam’). This was borne by a
famous 4th-century saint, Martin of Tours, and consequently became
extremely popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a North
American surname, this form has absorbed many cognates from other
European forms.
2. English: habitational name from any of several places so called,
principally in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, and Worcestershire, named in
Old English as ‘settlement by a lake’ (from mere or mær ‘pool’,
‘lake’ + tun ‘settlement’) or as ‘settlement by a boundary’ (from
(ge)mære ‘boundary’ + tun ‘settlement’). The place name has been
charged from Marton under the influence of the personal name Martin.
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