English and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone who came from London or a nickname for someone who had made a trip to London or had some other connection with the city. In some cases, however, the Jewish name was purely ornamental. The place name, recorded by the Roman historian Tacitus in the Latinized form Londinium, is obscure in origin and meaning, but may be derived from pre-Celtic (Old European) roots with a meaning something like ‘place at the navigable or unfordable river’.