Towne
An old English surname meaning someone from the town or settlement.
The #5,231 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,316 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Towne is an old spelling of Town, from Old English tūn, a word that originally meant an enclosure or farmstead and later came to mean a village or town. As a surname, it would have been used for someone who lived in or near the town, or for someone identified by that place. The final -e spelling is an older English orthographic form, not a separate word.
History
The surname is recorded in medieval and later English sources in both Town and Towne spellings. It belongs to the large class of locational surnames formed from everyday settlement names, and it spread with English-speaking populations to North America and elsewhere. Modern bearers often retain the older Towne spelling even where the pronunciation is the same as Town.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The underlying Old English word tūn is the same root that eventually gave English the word "town."
From the historical record
“TOWN "1 (Eng.) Dweller at the Town ; orig. TOWNE J an ENCLOSURE, then a Farmstead, Village [M.E. t{o)un, t{o)une (M. Scot. toun{e), O.E. tun] And he went and drew him to aan of the citezenis of that cuntre, and he send him into his toune to fede swyne. —”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)