# Paxton (surname)

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

An English habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 11,754 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,049 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 26,267 people |
| Change since 2000 | +6.7% (11,013 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English *Pæcces + tūn (literally “settlement of (a person named) *Pæcc”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Paxton 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) | 86% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 8.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Paxton in the United States.

## People named Paxton

- Bill Paxton, American actor and filmmaker (1955–2017)
- Sara Paxton, American actress (born 1988)
- Tom Paxton, American folk singer and singer-songwriter
- Robert Paxton, American political scientist and historian
- Steve Paxton, American experimental dancer and choreographer (1939–2024)
- William McGregor Paxton, American artist (1869–1941)
- James Paxton, American actor (born 1994)
- Elizabeth Okie Paxton, American painter (1878–1972)

## Similar surnames

Pixton, Poston, Postma, Pestana, Pagaduan, Picton.

## 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.