Frequency: (4325)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: habitational name from any of various places called Wharton. Examples in Cheshire and Herefordshire are from an Old English river name Wæfer (derived from wæfre ‘wandering’, ‘winding’) + Old English tūn ‘settlement’; another in Lincolnshire has as its first element Old English wearde ‘beacon’ or waroð ‘shore’, ‘bank’; one in the former county of Westmorland (now part of Cumbria) is from Old English hwearf ‘wharf’, ‘embankment’ + tūn.
FOREBEARS: Richard Wharton (d. 1689) emigrated from England to MA in about 1667, in search of fortune (which he did not achieve) rather than religious freedom.
A very different character was the Quaker Thomas Wharton, who came from Westmoreland, England, to Philadelphia, PA, some time before 1689.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
