Britton
A surname that usually meant “the Breton” or “person from Brittany,” with some later confusion with Britain itself.
The #1,217 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,632 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Britton is generally an ethnic or regional surname for someone from Brittany in northwest France. It comes through Old French forms like Breton/le Breton, ultimately from Latin Britannia and related Celtic forms meaning Britain or Britons. In English records the name was also written Brittain, Britten, Bretton, and similar spellings, and some writers treated it as if it meant “of Britain” more broadly.
History
The name appears in medieval English records and is especially noted in older sources as occurring in parts of England, including areas between Bath and Bristol. It was also borne by immigrant families from Brittany, and later spellings became very fluid. The surname has long been associated with the same name-family as Breton and Brittain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century authority, John Britton, said the name was especially common in parishes between Bath and Bristol and that his own family branches later spread onward, including to Jamaica.
From the historical record
“BRITTAN BRITTEN BRITTON BUTTARl butter; BUTTERICK 2 (Celt.) for the etymology see under Le Breton in the Appen-”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)