The surname Thornton
An English place surname, carried by 83,967 people in the United States.
Pronounced /ˈθɔː(ɹ)ntən/ 2 syllables Soundex T653 Also a first name
Origin
English origin
From Old English þorn (“thorn”) + tūn (“settlement”).
Thornton is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 83,967 people named Thornton in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 3,677 Americans. That is up 3.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 81,191.
Who is named Thornton
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
67% of people named Thornton identified as white (not Hispanic), 27% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as two or more races.
- White (not Hispanic) 67%
- Black (not Hispanic) 27%
- Two or more races 2.3%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.1%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
Famous Thorntons
34 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Billy Bob ThorntonAmerican actor, filmmaker, and musician, born 1955
- Big Mama ThorntonAmerican rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, 1926–1984
- Tiffany ThorntonAmerican actress, born 1986
- Melody ThorntonAmerican singer, born 1984
- Melanie ThorntonAmerican singer (1967–2001)
- Kathryn C. ThorntonAmerican scientist and NASA astronaut, born 1952
- David ThorntonAmerican actor, born 1953
- William E. ThorntonAmerican astronaut (1929–2021)
- Marcus ThorntonAmerican basketball player (born 1987)
- David Howard ThorntonAmerican actor, born 1979
- Al ThorntonAmerican basketball player (born 1983)
- William ThorntonBritish-American physician, inventor, painter and architect (1759-1828)
Notable Thorntons come mostly from the United States (25), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (3) and Australia (3).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Surnames that sound like Thornton
Thornton has the Soundex code T653, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code T653.
Other English surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Thornton come from?
- From Old English þorn (“thorn”) + tūn (“settlement”).
- How common is the surname Thornton?
- 83,967 people in the United States had the surname Thornton in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 3,677 Americans. It ranked 373rd of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Thornton?
- In the 2010 Census, 67% of people named Thornton identified as white (not Hispanic), and 27% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Thornton?
- Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, filmmaker, and musician, followed by Big Mama Thornton.
- Where is the surname Thornton most common?
- Wikidata records people named Thornton in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Australia and 2 other countries.
- How do you pronounce Thornton?
- Thornton is /ˈθɔː(ɹ)ntən/, 2 syllables.
- What type of surname is Thornton?
- Thornton is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
- Is the surname Thornton getting more or less common?
- More common. 81,191 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 83,967 in 2010, up 3.4%.
- Is Thornton also a first name?
- Yes. Thornton is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.