Family name origins & meanings
- English (mainly Lancashire) : habitational name from any of the various places named Hatton, from Old English hǣð ‘heathland’, ‘heather’ (see Heath) + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. Examples of the place name are found in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, West London, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire.
- French : from the Old French oblique case of the Germanic personal name Hado, Hatto, a short form of various compound names beginning with hadu ‘strife’.
- Irish (Ulster) and Scottish : shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Chatáin (Irish), Mac Gille Chatain (Scottish) (see McHatton).
- Scottish : habitational name, perhaps in part of English origin (see 1), but perhaps also from a Scottish place name.