Manning

Manning (also Mannion, Ma(i)nnin) is a family name. Manning is from an old Norse word — manningi — meaning a brave or valiant man; and one of the first forms of the name was Mannin; another cartography was Mannygn. One historian gives a Saxon origin for the family, which he calls "ancient and noble". According to him, Manning was the name of a town in Saxony, and from it the surname sprang. Other historians make Mannheim, Germany, the cradle of the family, and begin its history with Ranulph, or Rudolph de Manning, Count Palatine, who, having married Elgida, aunt to King Harold I of England, had a grant of land in Kent, England. His name is also written de Mannheim — Rudolph de Mannheim. His place in Kent was Downe Court, and there the Mannings have been a power ever since. Simon de Manning, a grandson of Rudolph, was the first of the English barons to take up the cross and go forth to the Holy Wars. He was a companion of King Richard I of England, and was knighted on the battlefield. He was Lord of the Manor of Kevington, and the area now called Berry's Green.