Frequency: (271)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: habitational name from places in Hampshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire named Forton, from Old English ford ‘ford’ + tūn ‘settlement’, ‘enclosure’.
2. French: variant of Fortin.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
