Charlton
A place-based surname meaning “the farm or settlement of free peasants,” taken from several English Charltons.
The #3,383 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,251 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Charlton is a locational surname from any of several English places named Charlton. The name comes from Old English ceorl meaning “free peasant” or “farmer,” plus tun meaning “farmstead,” “village,” or “enclosure,” so the literal sense is “the settlement of the ceorls.” In older spellings and related forms, the name also appears as Charleton and Charleton.
History
The surname arose independently in more than one place, since Charlton is a common English place-name with many examples across the country. The historical record in the sources also shows families using the name in county by-names and in landed gentry lines, such as the Charltons of Hesleyside. Because there were so many Charltons, bearers of the surname are not usually connected to a single ancestral place.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley notes that there were so many English places called Charlton that the surname could arise from several different counties independently.
From the historical record
“2. A liberty in co. Leicester. CHARLTON. CHARLETON. Parishes and places in cos. Berks, Gloucester, Kent, Sussex, Wilts, Worcester, Somerset, Nor- thunib., Dorset, kc. kc. The Charltons of Hesleyside descend from Adam, lord of the manor of Charlton in Tyuedale, co. Nor- thumb., 1303. B.L.G. CHARLAYOOD. A parish in…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom