# Drayton (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/drayton/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 7,648 |
| US rank (2010) | 4,640 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 40,369 people |
| Change since 2000 | +10% (6,944 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdɹeɪ.tən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Middle English Drayton, from Old English Drægtūn (literally “town where logs are dragged”), from draġan (“to draw, drag”) + tūn (“enclosure, town”). Alternatively from Proto-Brythonic *treβ (“town, settlement”) + Old English tūn.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Drayton in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 15% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 79% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.2% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.2% |
| Two or more races | 3.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Drayton in the United States.

## People named Drayton

- Paul Drayton, American sprinter
- Bill Drayton, American social entrepreneur
- Noel Drayton, actor (1913-1981)

## Similar surnames

Dorton, Darden, Durden, Dryden, Dearden.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.