Thornton (surname)
Thornton is a surname found in Ireland and Britain.
Overview[]
Found in Britain as an English and Scottish surname derived from places so named in Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Fife, Merseyside, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Pembrokeshire, Yorkshire. Its basic form denotes a settlement ('tun') of some sort beside a thorn tree or hedge of thorns [1].
In Ireland, it is an Anglicised form of a number of Gaelic-Irish surnames which have nothing to do with the British placenames. "[Thornton] is a portmanteau English name for Ó Droighneáin, Mac Sceacháin, Ó Toráin. The connection is: draighean, blackthorn; sceach, whitethorn; tor, a bush. MacLysaght remarks that some Thorntons in Limerick were 16 cent planters." [2]. Ó Droighneáin remains in use as an Irish-language surname.
Bearers of the surname[]
- Abraham Thornton
- Al Thornton, basketball player
- Alfred Thornton (1853–1906), English footballer from the 1870s
- Alice Thornton (1626–1707), British autobiographer
- Alvin Thornton
- Andre Thornton (born 1949), American baseball player
- Andrew Thornton, pro jockey
- Andrew C. Thornton II
- Anne Jane Thornton, cabin boy and ship's cook
- Anne Thornton (born 1981), American pastry chef
- Archibald Thornton
- A. G. (Archibald George) Thornton novelist and journalist
- Sadik Hakim (born Argonne Thornton, 1919–1983) American jazz pianist and composer
- Barry Thornton, RAF officer
- Barry Thornton (cricketer) (born 1941), Australian cricketer
- Big Mama Thornton, musician
- Billy Bob Thornton (born 1955), American actor
- Bonnell Thornton, parodist
- Bret Thornton
- Bruce Thornton, classicist
- Cecilia Dart-Thornton
- Charley Thornton
- David Thornton (musician), British euphonium player
- David Thornton (actor), actor and husband to Cyndi Lauper
- David Thornton (American football), linebacker for the Tennessee Titans
- De'mario Monte Thornton, real name of Raz-B, member of boy band B2K
- Edward Thornton (disambiguation)
- Eleanor Velasco Thornton, actress and model
- Elizabeth Thornton, writer
- Flora L. Thornton
- Frank Thornton (1921–2013), English actor
- George Thornton (disambiguation)
- Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton
- Grant Thornton
- Henry Thornton (disambiguation)
- Henry Thornton (abolitionist), campaigner against the slave trade
- Henry Thornton (railroader), president of Canadian National Railway
- Hugh Thornton (American football) (born 1991), American football player
- James Thornton (disambiguation)
- James Thornton (naval officer) (1826–1875)
- James Worth Thornton, businessman and son of Sir Henry Worth Thornton
- Jim Thornton
- Joe Thornton, NHL hockey player
- John Thornton (disambiguation)
- John L. Thornton
- John R. Thornton
- John Wingate Thornton, lawyer, historian, author
- John Thornton (philanthropist)
- Kalen Thornton
- Kate Thornton, English television presenter
- Kathryn Thornton, astronaut
- Keith Thornton, hip hop artist Kool Keith
- Kelly Thornton, Irish actress
- Kelly Thornton, Canadian theatre director and dramaturge
- Kevin Thornton (chef), Irish Michelin starred chef
- Kevin Thornton (footballer), Irish footballer
- Khyri Thornton (born 1989), American football player
- Kirk Thornton
- Kristin Thornton
- Lawrence Thornton
- Leslie Thornton, American filmmaker and artist
- Leslie Thornton (sculptor) (1925–2016), English sculptor
- Lou Thornton, former major league baseball player
- Louise Thornton
- Malcolm Thornton
- Marcia Thornton Jones, best-selling children's author
- Marcus Thornton (disambiguation)
- Mark Thornton
- Matt Thornton (disambiguation)
- Matthew Thornton, first president of New Hampshire House of Representatives
- Melanie Thornton, musician
- Melody Thornton
- Merle Thornton, Australian feminist activist
- Michael Thornton (disambiguation)
- Omar Thornton, murderer of 8 and suicide, see Hartford Distributors shooting
- Patricia H. Thornton (born 1960s), American organizational theorist
- Paul Thornton, Live Events Producer
- Pusha T (born 1977), American rapper and record executive, born Terrence Thornton
- Randy Thornton
- Richard Thornton, millionaire 'Duke of Danzig'
- Robert Thornton (disambiguation)
- Roger Thornton
- Samantha Thornton (born 1966), Australian basketball player
- Samuel Thornton (disambiguation)
- Sara Thornton (disambiguation)
- Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965), cultural sociologist
- Scott Thornton, ice hockey player
- Sean Thornton
- Shawn Thornton, ice hockey player
- Sigrid Thornton, Australian actress
- Simon Thornton
- Tex Thornton
- Tiffany Thornton, American actress
- Tim Thornton (bishop) (born 1957), Bishop of Truro, and of Sherborne
- Tim Thornton (double bassist) (born 1988), British jazz double bassist
- Tim Thornton (musician, born 1973), English drummer, guitarist and novelist
- Tim Thornton (philosopher) (born 1966), British philosopher
- Walter Thornton
- Walter Thornton (cricketer), English cricketer
- Warwick Thornton, Australian cinematographer and director
- William Thornton, architect
- William E. Thornton, astronaut
- William Patton Thornton, doctor
- William Wheeler Thornton, Judge, Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, author, and State Supreme Court Librarian
- William Thomas Thornton, British economist, author, civil servant
- Zach Thornton
- Zack Thornton (born 1988), American baseball player
Fictional characters[]
- Sean Thornton, a character portrayed by John Wayne in The Quiet Man
First name[]
- Thornton Wilder, American playwright
This page lists people with the surname Thornton.
If an intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
If an intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
Categories:
- Surnames
- English-language surnames
- Surnames of Anglo-Saxon origin
- English toponymic surnames