indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Surname (from location)
Usage English
Meaning & History
Habitational name from Taunton in Somerset, Taunton Farm in Coulsdon, Surrey, or Tanton in North Yorkshire. The Somerset place name was originally a combination of a Celtic river name (now the Tone, possibly meaning ‘roaring stream’) + Old English tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. The Surrey name is possibly from Old English tān ‘branch’, ‘stalk’ + tūn, while Tanton was named in Old English as ‘settlement (tūn) on the Tame’, another Celtic river name.