Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of several places in Merseyside, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, and Staffordshire called Gayton, or from Gayton le Marsh or Gayton le Wold in Lincolnshire. The Northamptonshire and Staffordshire place names are from an Old English personal name Gǣga + tūn ‘farmstead’; the others are from Old Norse geit ‘goat’ + tún ‘farmstead’.
- French : diminutive of Gayte, a southern variant of guette ‘watch’, and hence an occupational name for a watchman.