Frequency: (687)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Scottish and English: habitational name, probably from Great and Little Ponton in Lincolnshire, named probably with an obscure Old English word pamp ‘hill’ + tūn ‘farmstead’, ‘enclosure’. The surname is now found chiefly in Scotland.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
