Creighton
Usually a surname from the Scottish place-name Crichton, though in Ireland it can also reflect anglicized Gaelic forms like Creaghan or O'Criochain.
The #4,840 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 42,398 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In the British Isles, Creighton is most often treated as a spelling variant of Crichton, a Scottish place-name from an old estate in Midlothian. The place-name itself is usually explained from a local name meaning something like "ridge farm" or a related topographic term, though the deeper form is not always set out the same way in older sources. In Ireland, however, Creighton can also be an anglicized form of Gaelic surnames such as Cregan/Creaghan or O'Criochain, so not every family with the name shares the same origin.
History
English and Scottish records show several spellings—Creighton, Crichton, Crighton, and related forms—used interchangeably in some families. Bardsley and Lower both connect the name mainly with Crichton in Scotland, while Woulfe and Matheson show that the name can also stand for different Gaelic surnames in Ireland. This makes Creighton a classic example of a surname with more than one independent origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries note that Creighton could be used as a spelling for several different names, so two Creightons may not share the same ancestry at all.
From the historical record
“Tregony, co. Cornwall. CREIGHTON. See Crichton. CRESEY. See Creasy. CRESPIK See Crispin. CRESSET. A fire-cage borne on a lofty pole by way of beacon or guiding liglit. See one figured and described in Eug. Surn. i. 203, 20i. The soldier or watch- man who carried such a light might in the XIII. or XIY. cent…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom