Family name origins & meanings
- Southern English : habitational name from any of several places so called, from Old English nēowe ‘new’ + port ‘market town’ (see Port 2).
- The earliest known bearer of this name in North America was Christopher Newport (died 1617), an English mariner who served with Sir Francis Drake’s Cadiz expedition of 1587. In 1592 he commanded a successful privateering expedition to the West Indies, taking 19 Spanish vessels. He married three times and had two daughters and two sons, one of whom, John, lived to acquire land in VA.