Marston
A habitational surname from a place called Marston, meaning a farmstead or settlement by a marsh or pool.
The #5,329 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,245 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Marston is a habitational name from one of many English places called Marston. The place-name is usually explained as Old English mere or mersc, meaning “pool” or “marsh,” plus tūn, “farmstead” or “settlement,” so the sense is “marsh farm” or “pool farm.” Some early writers also glossed it more simply as a settlement by marshland, and the exact element can vary by locality.
History
The surname arose independently in several parts of England because Marston is a common place-name. Historical dictionaries note numerous parishes and settlements of this name across counties such as Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and others. As with many locational surnames, people originally took the name after leaving one of these places, and the surname later spread beyond England through migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries note that Marston was so common as a place-name that it could produce multiple unrelated family lines with the same surname.
From the historical record
“2 Mark's Son : v. Mark. MARSTON (Eng.) Bel, to Marston =1 the- Pool-Farmstead [O.E. meres, genit. of mere, a pool + tiin] 2 the Marsh-Farmstead [O.E. mersc + ttitt] MARTEL \ the French Martel — Hammer MARTELLJ (a nickname, as in the case of , Charles Martel) [O.Fr. martel, f Lat. martul-us]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)