Kit Harington is the son of Deborah Jane (Catesby), a former playwright, and David Richard Harington, a businessman, and was born Christopher Catesby Harington in Acton, London. His mother named him after Christopher Marlowe, a 16th-century British playwright, and poet whose first name was shortened to Kit, which Harington favors. Sir Nicholas John Harington, the 14th Baronet Harington, is Harington's uncle, and Sir Richard Harington, the 12th Baronet Harington, is his paternal great-grandfather. Kit's eight times great-grandfather was King Charles II of England, thanks to his paternal grandmother, Lavender Cecilia Denny. Harington is also a descendant of politician Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, bacon merchant T. A. Denny, clergyman Baptist Wriothesley Noel, merchant and politician Peter Baillie, peer William Legge, 4th Earl of Dartmouth, and MP Sir William Molesworth, 6th Baronet, all of whom are related to him through his father.