Fulton
A Scottish and northern English surname that can come from a lost Roxburghshire place-name or, in some cases, from Fullarton.
The #1,083 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,571 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is usually explained as a locational name from an extinct border village in Roxburghshire, Scotland. Older forms such as de Pultone and de Fullone show how the place-name was recorded in medieval Latin and French-style spellings. Some later writers also treated Fulton as a shortened form of Fullarton, so the name may have more than one source in different families.
History
The name appears in medieval records from the Scottish Borders and later spread into Lowland Scotland and northern England. It is well known in Scotland and also turns up in Ireland, especially in Ulster, where it was carried by Scottish settlers. The name is also remembered through notable bearers such as the Scottish teacher George Fulton and the inventor Robert Fulton, though the latter surname line may not share the same local origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers often linked Fulton to a vanished border village, making it a good example of how some surnames preserve the memory of places that no longer exist.
From the historical record
“FULIVffiR. A parish in Bucks. FULTON. An extinct border village In CO. Roxburgh. FUL WELL. A township in Durham, FULWOOD. A township in co. Lan- caster, for many generations the seat of the family. FUNNELL. This name, though very common in Sussex, is, I think, rarely met with beyond the limits of that county.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom