This interesting name has two possible origins, the first of which is from an Anglo-Saxon male personal name, the Old English pre 7th Century 'Wynstan', composed of the elements 'wynn, winn', joy, and 'stan', stone. The personal name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Wnstan', and the surname from this source is first recorded in the Wiltshire Calendar of 'Inquisitions' for 1303 as Amice Wynston. The second possible origin for the modern surname, found as Winston and Winstone, is locational, from any of the places called 'Winston' in Durham, Suffolk and the Isle of Wight, or 'Winstone' in Gloucestershire. The places called 'Winston' in Durham and Suffolk mean 'Wine's settlement', from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name 'Wine', with 'tun', settlement, while 'Winston' in the Isle of Wight is 'Wynsige's tun', and 'Winstone' in Gloucestershire is 'Wynna's stone', from the Old English 'Wynna' and 'stan', stone. Sir Henry Winston of Standish, Gloucestershire, was grandfather to Sir Winston Churchill (born in 1620), himself the father of the first Duke of Marlborough. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Wineston, which was dated 1205, The Suffolk Records of Pleas before the King, during the reign of King John, known as 'Lackland', 1199-1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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