Houston
A Scottish surname originally meaning “Hugh’s town,” from a place name tied to an early landowner named Hugh.
The #592 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,426 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Houston is a habitational surname from the place name Houston in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The name is commonly explained as “Hugh’s town,” formed from the personal name Hugh plus town in its older sense of a settlement or homestead. Some older writers also connected the family with an earlier form from Lanarkshire, but the basic idea is the same: a place associated with a man named Hugh.
History
The surname was borne by an old Scottish landed family, often described as “of that ilk,” and it spread from western Scotland into wider use over time. In England and especially in North America, Houston later became familiar as a transferred surname rather than only a place-based Scottish name. The spelling Huston is a common simplified variant, and Houston remains especially well known through the city in Texas, though the city name has a separate origin from the surname itself.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older sources note that the family seat gave rise to the name, a classic example of a Scottish “of that ilk” surname.
From the historical record
“HOUSLEY. The same as Ouseley. HOUSTON. HOUSTOUN, The an- cient knightly family so called originally bore the name of Paduinan from a place in CO. Lanark. In the XII. cent. Hugli de P. acquired the lands of Kilpeter, and built a residence there, to which he gave the name of Hugh's Town, now Houston, co, Kenfrew. His…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom