English: habitational name from any of the many places called
Alton, in Derbyshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Leicestershire,
Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and elsewhere. The origin is
various: Alton in Derbyshire and Alton Grange in Leicestershire
probably have as their first element Old English (e)ald
‘old’. Those in Hampshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire are at the sources of
rivers, and are named in Old English as ‘settlement (tun) at
the source (?wiell)’. Others derive from various Old
English personal names; for example, the one in Staffordshire is
formed with an unattested personal name, Ælfa, and one in
Worcestershire, Eanulfintun in 1023, is ‘settlement associated
with (-ing) Eanwulf’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
168,328
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Alton
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