Clayton
A surname usually taken from a place name meaning “settlement on clay soil.”
The #595 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,451 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Clayton is a habitational surname from various English places called Clayton. The place-name is usually explained as Old English *clæg* “clay” + *tūn* “farmstead, settlement,” so the literal sense is “the clay settlement” or “farm on clay land.” Older writers sometimes treated some bearers as coming from a specific Clayton, but the name is best understood as independently arising from several localities.
History
The surname appears in medieval records as a locational byname, such as forms like “de Clayton.” Because there were multiple places called Clayton in England, the surname arose in more than one region, especially in the north and Midlands. Some 19th-century family traditions linked Lancashire Claytons to a Norman ancestor, but that claim is not secure as a general explanation for the name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Clayton is one of those surnames that can point to several different English villages at once, not just one ancestral hometown.
From the historical record
“CLAYPOLE. A parish in Lincolnshire. CLAYTON. Parishes and places in cos. Stafford, Sussex, York, and Lancaster. The Claytons of the last-named shire claim descent from one Eobert, who came into England with the Conqueror, and received Clayton in reward of his services. B.L.G. CLAYWORTH. A parish in co. Notts.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom