Fenton
A place-name surname meaning “from the fen settlement” or “from the village on marshy ground.”
The #2,274 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,276 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Fenton is a locational surname from several English places called Fenton. The name is usually explained from Old English fēn, meaning “fen” or marsh, plus tūn, meaning “enclosure,” “farm,” or “settlement.” In other words, it originally meant a farm or village on wet, marshy ground.
History
The surname is recorded early in medieval England, and Lower notes that the neighbourhood of Leeds was a principal centre of the name in the 14th century. It also appears in Scotland as “of that Ilk,” showing that some families took their name from a local estate or place rather than from a single nationwide origin. Because there are multiple places called Fenton, the surname may have arisen independently in more than one region.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Fenton belongs to a very common English surname pattern: many medieval surnames were simply taken from the name of the village where a person lived or came from.
From the historical record
“thumberland. FENTON. Parishes and places in cos. York, Lincoln, and Stafford. The neigh- bourhood of Leeds was the principal habitat of the name in the XIV. cent. FENWICK. "The Fenwykes of Nor- thumberland, ["iusignis et illustris Fen- wickorum progenies."] are of Saxon origin, and take their cognomen from their…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom