Norton — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: toponymic (English)
Meaning: 'north farm/settlement' (English place-name origin)
Traditional stronghold: Kilkenny, Kerry
Pronunciation: NOR-tun
History of the Norton name
Norton is an English toponymic surname, meaning north farm or north settlement, one of the commonest place-name-derived surnames in England, and it arrived in Ireland with Anglo-Norman and later English settlers from the medieval period onward. Norton families became established in County Kilkenny and separately in County Kerry, among other pockets, generally as part of the wider Anglo-Norman or English colonial presence rather than through any single organised settlement. Because it is a purely descriptive English name with no Gaelic root, Norton in Ireland does not correspond to any old Irish sept, but the surname has been present in the country for many centuries and is now considered a long-established Irish name in its own right.
Variants: Naughton (occasionally confused) · Nortoun
Famous bearers of the name
- William Norton — Leader of the Irish Labour Party and Tanaiste of Ireland from 1948 to 1951
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Sullivan · Walsh · O'Connor · McCarthy · O'Connell · Brennan · Fitzgerald · Fitzpatrick