Appleton
A habitational surname meaning “settlement or town associated with apples,” originally taken from one of several English places named Appleton.
The #6,132 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 55,252 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Appleton is a place-name surname built from Old English elements meaning “apple” and “town” or “settlement/enclosure.” In other words, it originally referred to a place where apples grew or an orchard settlement. Medieval records show the surname being used for people identified by residence at such places.
History
The name is recorded from several English localities, especially in Norfolk, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and elsewhere, so the surname likely arose independently in more than one place. It became fixed as a hereditary surname in medieval England and later appears in parish registers and marriage records. Like many English habitational names, it spread through internal migration and later to North America and other English-speaking regions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname dictionaries often glossed Appleton quite literally as “the town abounding in apples.”
From the historical record
“termonger. APPLETON. Parishes and places in cos. Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Norfolk, York, kc. ARA APPLETREE. (A-Sax. apt and treoiv). Our Saxon forefathers named many locali- ties— which have since given rise to sur- names— from trees. Appledore, Kent, Ap- pledore, Devon ; Appledram, Sussex, and”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom