# Thornton (surname)

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

An English and Scottish habitational surname from Old English from these places.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 83,967 |
| US rank (2010) | 373 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 3,677 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.4% (81,191 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈθɔː(ɹ)ntən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English þorn (“thorn”) + tūn (“settlement”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Thornton 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) | 67% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 27% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Thornton in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

## People named Thornton

- Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, filmmaker, and musician
- Big Mama Thornton, American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter
- Tiffany Thornton, American actress
- Melody Thornton, American singer
- Melanie Thornton, American singer (1967–2001)
- Kathryn C. Thornton, American scientist and NASA astronaut
- David Thornton, American actor
- William E. Thornton, American astronaut (1929–2021)
- Marcus Thornton, American basketball player (born 1987)
- David Howard Thornton, American actor
- Al Thornton, American basketball player (born 1983)
- William Thornton, British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect (1759-1828)

and 22 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Thorndike, Trent, Trinidad, Tarrant, Tarantino, Trantham, Taranto, Turrentine, Trentham.

## 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.