Staten
A Dutch-style surname probably linked to an estate, farm, or place-name rather than a personal trait.
The #4,430 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 38,492 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is most likely tied to Dutch and Frisian place-words such as state or sate, terms used for a house, farm, or landed holding. In older northern Dutch usage, such place-names often became hereditary surnames when people took the name of the farm or estate they lived on. The ending -en is consistent with a plural or place-based family name form, though the exact local source is not always recoverable.
History
The provided historical material points to Frisian naming habits, where names derived from estates and farms could become fixed surnames. Staten may also have been influenced by Dutch-American spelling and recording practices in North America. Because the excerpt does not give a single definitive first bearer, the family line is best treated as a place-derived surname with regional Dutch/Frisian roots.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname may ultimately reflect the same naming tradition behind many Frisian farm and estate names, where a place could become a family name for later generations.
From the historical record
“(see Memoir). Mr. Butteridge was one of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims. One of the patentees of Staten Island (1634) was named Ribread (" rye- bread "). A Mr. Bun lives at Sudbury, Vt. Bunny's " Resolution " is a work which few have the resolu- tion to read. In New York I find Mr. AVeisbrod (i.e., German”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)