Frequency: (380)
(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 (mainly Lancashire): habitational name from any of several places named Halton, usually from Old English h(e)alh ‘nook’, ‘hollow’ + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. Halton in Cheshire, however, is possibly named from an Old English hāthel ‘heathery place’ + tūn, and Halton in Northumberland from an Old English hāw ‘look out’ + hyll ‘hill’ + tūn.
2. Irish: altered form of O’Haltahan, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUltacháin ‘descendant of Ultachán’, a diminutive of Ultach ‘Ulsterman’. This is a rare Fermanagh surname, which is sometimes Anglicized as Nolan.
FOREBEARS: Most English bearers of this name trace their descent from William de Halton, who was living at Halton, Lancashire, in 1346.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
