Brotherton
A habitational surname from Brotherton in Yorkshire, literally meaning the settlement associated with a brother or brothers.
The #6,654 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 60,705 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Brotherton is a habitational surname taken from the place-name Brotherton in Yorkshire. The name is usually explained as meaning “Brother’s farm/settlement,” from Old English brōthor or later Middle English brother plus tūn, “enclosure, farmstead, settlement.” The surname therefore originally identified someone who came from that village rather than describing a family relationship in the modern sense.
History
The surname is recorded in medieval English documents with forms such as de Brotherton, showing the usual Norman-French style of location-based naming. Later surname dictionaries consistently treat it as local to the Yorkshire parish of Brotherton. It remained an English regional surname and later spread more widely through internal migration and emigration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A place-name ending in -ton is one of the clearest clues to an Anglo-Saxon origin, since it commonly marks an old farm or settlement.
From the historical record
“like the 0. Norse, hrochirson, a nephew. BROTHERTON. A parish in York- shire. See Brother. BRO UGH. Parishes, &c., in cos. West- moreland, Derby, York, &c. BROUGHAlNf. From Brougham castle, CO. AVestmoreland, the Eoraan station Brocovum of Antoninus. The De Burghams held it temp. Edw. Confessor, and their…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom