Gaston
A surname with several possible roots, most likely from a place-name or, in French usage, from the personal name Gaston.
The #1,837 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,831 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Gaston has several competing explanations in older surname books. Some writers treat it as a locational name, either from a place in France or from an English place-name such as a grassy enclosure; others connect it with the French given name Gaston. One 19th-century source also suggested a Gaelic link meaning something like “brave man,” but that derivation is less secure and may be speculative.
History
In medieval records the name appears in forms such as de Gaston, which can point to place-based naming or to French personal-name usage. The name later shows up in England and was carried onward to North America. Because early authorities disagreed about its source, the surname is best treated as having a mixed and uncertain history rather than one single origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older dictionaries tried to explain Gaston in three different ways at once: as a French place-name, a French given name, and even a Gaelic word for bravery.
From the historical record
“dant. GASTON. I. A grassy enclosure. A- Sax., g{vrs, grass, and ti(7i, an enclosure. De la Garstou. H.R. 2. A baptismal name, as Gaston de Foix. GATACRE. A family of great antiquity, said to have been established at Gatacre, GAW”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom