Boughton
An English habitational surname, originally meaning someone from one of several places called Boughton.
The #9,978 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 95,498 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Boughton is a place-name surname from English places called Boughton, of which there are several. The name is usually explained from Old English roots for a bent or bowed hill, often rendered as "bowing hill" or "bent hill." In historical spellings the name appears in forms such as Boveton, Bocton, and Rough-ton/Roughton-like variants, reflecting the fluid medieval spelling of local names.
History
The name was borne by families from different Boughton places in England, so not every Boughton line has the same local origin. One noted gentry line, later the Boughton baronets, traced itself to an earlier de Boveton/Boughton form and was seated in Warwickshire for generations. The surname also appears in records from Norfolk, Kent, and elsewhere, showing how a place-name could become a hereditary surname in more than one county.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is tied to more than one English village called Boughton, so two unrelated families could share the same surname for purely geographic reasons.
From the historical record
“in A-Sax. times. BOUGHTON.* The family of Boughton, baronets, derive themselves from Robert de Boveton, whose grandson William de Boveton was living temp. Edw. III. The family possessed Lawford, co. Warwick, by marriage with the heiress of Allesley, temp. Henry VL, and there they resided till the year 1781, when…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom