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 tun ‘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’ + tun.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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