Polston
Likely a Cornish surname from a place-name, probably meaning “the farm or settlement by the pool.”
The #9,827 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,701 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Polston is most likely a locational surname from a Cornish place-name. The first element is probably Cornish pol, meaning a pool, pond, or hollow; the second element is less certain, but older writers connected it with a local place near Launceston called Polston. In that reading, the name would point to someone who came from or lived near a settlement associated with a pool or water feature.
History
The name appears in older surname lists and fits the strong Cornish pattern of surnames taken from local place-names. Nineteenth-century writers treated it as a Cornish form and linked it to a place near Launceston, though the exact place-name analysis is not fully secure. Today it remains a relatively uncommon surname, with a small presence in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Cornish place-name surnames often preserve very old landscape words, and pol is one of the most characteristic of them.
From the historical record
“POLSTRONGr. From pol-tron, the head of the promon- tory. There is however a place called Polston near Laun- ceston. POLSUE. From poUsuBy -sewy the black pool. POLUND. See Bolland.”
— Patronymica Cornu-Britannica; or, the etymology of Cornish surnames