Frequency: (346)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Dutch and German (also North German von Holten): habitational name from places so called, from Low German holt ‘holt’, ‘copse’, ‘small wood’. There is one in the Dutch province of Overijssel and another near Oberhausen in the Rhineland.
2. Danish: variant of Holt.
3. Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads so named, either from the definite singular form of holt ‘holt’, ‘small wood’ (see Holt), or from holt ‘hill’, ‘stony slope’.
4. English: variant spelling of Holton.
GIVEN NAMES: Scandinavian 4%. Erik, Hjalmer, Lars, Nils.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
