Manton Family History

English: habitational name from any of the various places so called, for example in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Wiltshire. For the most part the first element is either Old English (ge)m?ne ‘common’, ‘shared’ (see Manley, Manship), or the Old English byname Mann(a) (see Mann). However, in the case of Manton in Lincolnshire the early forms show clearly that it was Old English m(e)alm ‘sand’, ‘chalk’, with reference to the poor soil of the region. The second element is in each case Old English tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. Irish (Cork): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Manntáin ‘descendant of Manntán’, a personal name derived from a diminutive of manntach ‘toothless’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press