Banton

English: habitational name of uncertain origin. There is a place so called in Strathclyde region and a Banton House in Lancashire; the present-day concentration of the surname in the Derbyshire area suggests the latter may be the more likely source. In some instances the name may have arisen from a place called Bampton, in particular, one in Cumbria, named with Old English bēam ‘trunk’, ‘beam’ + tūn ‘farmstead’, ‘settlement’.

See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.