Felton
A habitational surname from several English places called Felton, likely meaning “farmstead on a hill” or “settlement by a rocky/stony hill.”
The #2,266 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,244 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Felton is a locational surname taken from one or more English place-names. The usual explanation is Old English feld or fel(a) plus tun, meaning a farmstead, enclosure, or settlement; some older writers glossed it more loosely as a “rocky” or “stony” hill name. In practice, surname use points to someone who came from a place called Felton, such as those in Northumberland, Somerset, Shropshire, or Herefordshire.
History
The name appears in English records as a surname drawn from several villages called Felton, so different families may have taken it independently. Later genealogical writers noted Felton lines in Northumberland and elsewhere, but the surname is not tied to a single origin point. It is now established mainly in England and in English-speaking countries such as the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source specifically lists Felton among surnames formed from English place-names, alongside several other -ton names.
From the historical record
“FELTHAM. A parish in Middlesex. FELTON. Parishes and places in cos. Hereford. Northumberland, Somerset, and Shropshire. [^"FEMALE CHRISTIAN-NAMES n'liwh have hccome Surnames. — Several family names have the appearance of being derived from the baptismal names of females, and this has been thought to imply…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom