Thornton
A common English and Scottish place-name surname meaning someone from a thorny enclosure or farmstead.
The #373 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,677 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Thornton comes from place-names built from Old English thorn and tūn, meaning a settlement, farmstead, or enclosure. In some northern areas the first element may also reflect Old Norse yorn, a cognate of Old English thorn. So the name originally pointed to someone who lived at, or came from, a place called Thornton, literally a "thorn farm" or "thorn enclosure."
History
The surname arose independently in many places named Thornton across England, especially in Yorkshire, and also in Scotland. Early records cited by 19th-century writers show forms such as Torentun, Tornetun, and similar spellings in Domesday-era material. Because the place-name is so widespread, the surname became common in several counties rather than tracing back to one single family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Yorkshire alone has had so many Thorntons that older surname writers remarked on how widely the place-name repeats there.
From the historical record
“THORNTON (Eng. and Scand.) Bel. to Thorn- ton ; or Dweller at the Thorn - Tree Enclosure or Farmstead [O.E. O.N. Yorn + O.E. O.N. tun] Thornton, Dorset, occurs in a charter A.to. 958 as ' xt^omtAne' — dat. The various York. Thorntons appear in Domesday-Bk. as Torentun, Torentune, Tornetun, Torneton, Tomitun ; Lane.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)