[3] "North" was added to distinguish the place from East Rigton, 7 miles (11 km) southeast.

The place was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Riston, an Anglo-Norman spelling of the name.

[5] The village was historically a township in the parish of Kirkby Overblow, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

[2] It became a separate civil parish in 1866,[3] and was transferred to the new county of North Yorkshire in 1974.

Media related to North Rigton at Wikimedia Commons