Payton

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Peyton in IE Ireland, ZA South Africa, DZ Algeria and 1 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Payton is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname16K records spelled Payton4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Paytón

• Arabic surname672 records spelled Payton3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Egypt, United Kingdom, United States, Palestine

  Also written Pâytön

• Italian surname575 records spelled Payton2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom

  Also written Påÿtôñ

55 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Payton is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Peyton, Essex, Suffolk; first attested Matthew de Peytun 1240 FFEss

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, Old English; from the settlement of Pæga.

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In English, (so called from the OE personal name Paga + OE tun en¬ closure, settlement) or from some other place similarly named. The surname is common in the W Midlands. Peyton in Essex has probably not contributed; it is re¬ corded in Domesday Book as Pachenhou ‘ridge, spur (see Hoe) of Pac(c)a’, and even in the i6th cent, it was still Pakenho or Patenhall. Collectives (of i): Prov.: Laperiere. Sp.: Pereda.

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

• Transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from Peyton in Sussex, probably named in Old English as 192 ; ‘Pega’s settlement’. Payton Place was the collective name of a novel by Mazo de la Roche, which was the basis for an American television soap opera in the 1950S. Variant: Peyton.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, A habitational surname from Old English.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 121 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Barbara Paytonb. 1927USAmerican actress (1927-1967)
• Gary Paytonb. 1948USAmerican astronaut
• Walter Paytonb. 1954USAmerican football running back, Pro Football Hall of Famer (1954-1999)
• Sean Paytonb. 1963USAmerican football coach and player (born 1963)
• Gary Paytonb. 1968USAmerican basketball player (born 1968)
• Khary Paytonb. 1972USAmerican actor
• Jay Paytonb. 1972USAmerican baseball player
• Nicholas Paytonb. 1973USAmerican musician
• Gary Payton IIb. 1992USAmerican basketball player
• Elfrid Paytonb. 1994USAmerican basketball player (born 1994)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 430 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Payton?

We estimate roughly 24 thousand people bear Payton (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Payton have the most bearers?

We estimate about 24 thousand people bear Payton in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled payton.

How common is Payton compared with other names?

In the United States, Payton is the 861st most common surname of 7,257,200 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Payton mean?

Recorded meaning: ‘person from Peyton’, Sussex (‘PSga’s settlement’).