Newton

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Newton, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Kepler
• Darwin
• Galileo
• Tesla
• Sagan

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Newton is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from one or other of the many places of this name; first attested Alward de Niwetuna 1066 DB (Nf)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• Mainly U.S.: transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from any of the very numerous places so called from Old English néowe ‘new’ + tin ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. This is said to be the commonest of all English place names. The most famous bearer of the surname is probably Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 1727), the English scientist. Short form: Newt.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, habitational name from any of the many places so named, from Old English neowe ‘new’ -t- tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. According to Ekwall, this is the commonest English place name. For this reason, the surname has a highly fragmented origin.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, places so called, from OE neowe New + tun enclosure, settlement. According to Ekwall, this is the commonest Eng. placename. For this reason, the surname has a highly fragmented origin.

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

• In English, In the International System of Units, the derived unit of force; the force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram by one metre per second per second. Symbol: N.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Gilbert Newton Lewisb. 1875USAmerican physical chemist
• Murray Rothbardb. 1926USnot in their usual nameAmerican economist (1926–1995)
• Wayne Newtonb. 1942USAmerican singer and entertainer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

80 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 42 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Newton mean, and where does it come from?

Person from Newton, a place name meaning ‘new farmstead’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

Which countries have the most people with the surname Newton?

In the United States, the national register counted about 74 thousand people named Newton, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled newton. After it come United Kingdom, Pakistan, Canada and Australia; the country table on this page ranks them.

Where is Newton most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Newton is densest in St. Kitts & Nevis — about 1 in 737 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is the name Newton?

In the United States, the national register counted 74,092 people named Newton in 2010, about 1 in 4.5 thousand residents.