Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from Tilton in Leicestershire, named with the Old English personal name Tila + Old English tūn ‘farmstead’, ‘settlement’.
- William Tilton came to Lynn, MA, in or before 1637. Many of his descendants were master mariners, living on Martha’s Vineyard. James Tilton of DE (1745–1822) was a physician who became U.S. surgeon general.