Carleton
A place-based surname meaning someone from one of several English places called Carleton or Carlton, literally a “farmstead or settlement of free peasants.”
The #7,753 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 72,103 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Carleton is an English locational surname from places named Carleton or Carlton. The place-name usually goes back to Old English ceorl, meaning “free peasant” or “freeman,” plus tūn, “farmstead, village, or settlement.” In other words, the name originally meant “the settlement of the free peasants.”
History
Medieval records in the excerpts show bearers of the name in 14th-century England, and later sources note that the surname occurs beside many English place-names of the same type. It spread widely as a habitational surname, so different Carleton families may descend from different towns or villages called Carleton/Carlton rather than from a single ancestor. The Irish genealogical sources also record Carleton as an English-derived surname found in Ireland.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
There are many English places called Carlton or Carleton, which is why people with this surname are not necessarily related to one another.
From the historical record
“Anabella de Carleton, 1379: P. T. Thomas de Carleton, 1379 : ibid. p. 34. Johannes de Carletor, , 1379 : ibid. p. 46.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)