Brewton History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

The illustrious surname Brewton is classified as a habitation surname, which was originally derived from a place-name, and is one form of surname belonging to a broader group called hereditary surnames. Habitation names were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Topographic names, form the other broad category of surnames that was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree.

Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties. As a general rule, the greater the distance between an individual and their homeland, the larger the territory they were named after. For example, a person who only moved to another parish would be known by the name of their original village, while people who migrated to a different country were often known by the name of a region or country from which they came. Brewton is a place-name from in Breton. Brewton is a southern English corruption of the name Breton, which denoted a person who came from Brittany, in France. This type of name is called a local surname, which comes from the broad category of hereditary surnames. Local names were usually adopted from the name of the place where an ancestor had once lived. The name came to England with the Norman Conquest in 1066; Alain de Breton was a noble who accompanied Duke William on his successful conquest of England. His sons, Roger and Thomas le Breton, were granted lordships in Somerset. Their name has become a permanent part of the county of Somerset; the village of Bruton derives its name from this family. The place-name Bruton further served as a source for the surnames of some of the people who lived there. In this way did occupants of a small town in southern England become named after a province of France.

Early Origins of the Brewton family

The surname Brewton was first found in Somerset and Devon where, in the latter county Auvrai le Breton held twenty two lordships granted to him by William the Conqueror for his service at Hastings in 1066 A.D. Roger and Thomas le Breton, his successors, were granted lordships in Somerset. Bruton was listed in the Domesday Book as Briwetone, 1 and literally meant "farmstead on the River Brue," the latter Celtic word meant "brisk." Combined it meant, "farmstead on the brisk running river." 2 The Hundred of Bruton is one of the 40 hundreds in Somerset and was a relatively small hundred, covering approximately 14,250 acres.

Early History of the Brewton family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Brewton research. Another 225 words (16 lines of text) covering the year 1066 is included under the topic Early Brewton History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Brewton Spelling Variations

Since the Old and Middle English languages lacked definite spelling rules, Breton surnames have many spelling variations. Latin and French, which were the official court languages, were also influential on the spelling of surnames. The spelling of surnames was rarely consistent in medieval times, and scribes and church officials recorded names as they sounded rather than adhering to any specific spelling rules. Therefore, it was common to find the same individual referred to with different spellings of their surname in the ancient chronicles. Moreover, a large number of foreign names were brought into England after the Norman Conquest, which accelerated and accentuated the alterations to the spelling of various surnames. The name has been spelled Bruton, Breton, Brutyn, Brutten, Brutone, Brewton, Brutown, Brewtowne, Bretown and many more.

Early Notables of the Brewton family

More information is included under the topic Early Brewton Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Brewton Ranking

In the United States, the name Brewton is the 6,614^th most popular surname with an estimated 4,974 people with that name. 3

Migration of the Brewton family to Ireland

Some of the Brewton family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. More information about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Brewton migration to the United States +

Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Brewton, or a variant listed above:

Brewton Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Jon Brewton, who arrived in Virginia in 1634 4

Brewton Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

John Brewton, who landed in Virginia in 1707 4

Brewton Settlers in United States in the 20th Century

David Brewton, aged 37, who immigrated to the United States, in 1915

Contemporary Notables of the name Brewton (post 1700) +

Maia Luisa Brewton (b. 1977), American actress
Lieutenant John Cooke "Bubba" Brewton (1943-1970), US Navy Seal, eponym of the USS Brewton (FF-1086)
James Edward Brewton (b. 1930), American painter and printmaker

Citations +

Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)