Whitten
Usually a shortened form of Whitten/Whitton-type place names or a regional spelling of the Whitton surname.
The #2,571 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,969 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical dictionaries point Whitten to Whitton, suggesting it is a variant or reduced form of that surname rather than a completely separate origin. Whitton itself is a common English place-name surname, usually from Old English elements meaning "white" plus "enclosure, settlement, or town." In that sense, Whitten most likely began as a surname for someone from a place called Whitton or a related "white town" place-name.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers treated Whitten as part of the Whitton/Whitton-family group of names. It appears especially in English-language records as a spelling variant, and in some cases may also have been influenced by local pronunciation or by simplification of Whitton to Whitten. The name is now best known in the United States, where it is established but not especially common.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname dictionaries often cross-referenced Whitten directly to Whitton, showing how fluid surname spelling could be in historical records.
From the historical record
“WHITTEMORE = Whitmore, q.v. WHITTEN for Whitton, q.v. WHITTER = Whiter, q.v. WHITTERIDGE = Whitridge, q.v. WHITTHAM = Whitham, q.v. Whitthread”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)