Thornton (surname)
Thornton is a surname found in Ireland and Britain.
Overview
Found in Britain as an English and Scottish surname derived from places so named in Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Fife, Merseyside, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Pembrokeshire, Yorkshire. Its basic form denotes a settlement ('tun') of some sort beside a thorn tree or hedge of thorns [1].
In Ireland, it is an Anglicised form of a number of Gaelic-Irish surnames which have nothing to do with the British placenames. "[Thornton] is a portmanteau English name for Ó Droighneáin, Mac Sceacháin, Ó Toráin. The connection is: draighean, blackthorn; sceach, whitethorn; tor, a bush. MacLysaght remarks that some Thorntons in Limerick were 16 cent planters." [2]. Ó Droighneáin remains in use as an Irish-language surname.
Bearers of the surname
- Abraham Thornton
- Al Thornton, basketball player
- Alfred Thornton (1853–1906), English footballer from the 1870s
- Alice Thornton (1626–1707), British autobiographer
- Alvin Thornton
- Andre Thornton (born 1949), American baseball player
- Andrew Thornton, pro jockey
- Andrew C. Thornton II
- Anne Jane Thornton, cabin boy and ship's cook
- Anne Thornton (born 1981), American pastry chef
- Archibald Thornton
- A. G. Thornton novelist and journalist
- Sadik Hakim (born Argonne Thornton, 1919–1983) American jazz pianist and composer
- Barry Thornton, RAF officer
- Barry Thornton (cricketer) (born 1941), Australian cricketer
- Big Mama Thornton, musician
- Billy Bob Thornton (born 1955), American actor
- Bonnell Thornton, parodist
- Bret Thornton
- Bruce Thornton, classicist
- Cecilia Dart-Thornton
- Charley Thornton
- David Thornton (musician), British euphonium player
- David Thornton (actor), actor and husband to Cyndi Lauper
- David Thornton (American football), linebacker for the Tennessee Titans
- De'mario Monte Thornton, real name of Raz-B, member of boy band B2K
- Edward Thornton (disambiguation)
- Eleanor Velasco Thornton, actress and model
- Elizabeth Thornton, writer
- Flora L. Thornton
- Frank Thornton (1921–2013), English actor
- George Thornton (disambiguation)
- Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton
- Grant Thornton
- Henry Thornton (disambiguation)
- Henry Thornton (abolitionist), campaigner against the slave trade
- Henry Thornton (railroader), president of Canadian National Railway
- Hugh Thornton (American football) (born 1991), American football player
- James Thornton (disambiguation)
- James Thornton (naval officer) (1826–1875)
- James Worth Thornton, businessman and son of Sir Henry Worth Thornton
- Jim Thornton
- Joe Thornton, NHL hockey player
- John Thornton (disambiguation)
- John L. Thornton
- John R. Thornton
- John Wingate Thornton, lawyer, historian, author
- John Thornton (philanthropist)
- Kalen Thornton
- Kate Thornton, English television presenter
- Kathryn Thornton, astronaut
- Keith Thornton, hip hop artist Kool Keith
- Kelly Thornton, Irish actress
- Kelly Thornton, Canadian theatre director and dramaturge
- Kevin Thornton (chef), Irish Michelin starred chef
- Kevin Thornton (footballer), Irish footballer
- Khyri Thornton (born 1989), American football player
- Kirk Thornton
- Kristin Thornton
- Lawrence Thornton
- Leslie Thornton, American filmmaker and artist
- Leslie Thornton (sculptor) (1925–2016), English sculptor
- Lou Thornton, former major league baseball player
- Louise Thornton
- Malcolm Thornton
- Marcia Thornton Jones, best-selling children's author
- Marcus Thornton (disambiguation)
- Mark Thornton
- Matt Thornton (disambiguation)
- Matthew Thornton, first president of New Hampshire House of Representatives
- Melanie Thornton, musician
- Melody Thornton
- Merle Thornton, Australian feminist activist
- Michael Thornton (disambiguation)
- Omar Thornton, murderer of 8 and suicide, see Hartford Distributors shooting
- Patricia H. Thornton (born 1960s), American organizational theorist
- Paul Thornton, Live Events Producer
- Randy Thornton
- Richard Thornton, millionaire 'Duke of Danzig'
- Robert Thornton (disambiguation)
- Roger Thornton
- Samantha Thornton (born 1966), Australian basketball player
- Samuel Thornton (disambiguation)
- Sara Thornton (disambiguation)
- Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965), cultural sociologist
- Scott Thornton, ice hockey player
- Sean Thornton
- Shawn Thornton, ice hockey player
- Sigrid Thornton, Australian actress
- Simon Thornton
- Sidney Thornton (1954-2023), American football player
- Terrence Thornton (born 1977), birth name of American rapper and record executive Pusha T
- Tex Thornton
- Tiffany Thornton, American actress
- Tim Thornton (bishop) (born 1957), Bishop of Truro, and of Sherborne
- Tim Thornton (double bassist) (born 1988), British jazz double bassist
- Tim Thornton (musician, born 1973), English drummer, guitarist and novelist
- Tim Thornton (philosopher) (born 1966), British philosopher
- Trent Thornton, American baseball player
- Tyquan Thornton
- Walter Thornton
- Walter Thornton (cricketer), English cricketer
- Warwick Thornton, Australian cinematographer and director
- William Thornton, architect
- William E. Thornton, astronaut
- William Patton Thornton, doctor
- William Wheeler Thornton, Judge, Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, author, and State Supreme Court Librarian
- William Thomas Thornton, British economist, author, civil servant
- Zach Thornton
- Zack Thornton (born 1988), American baseball player
Fictional characters
- Sean Thornton, a character portrayed by John Wayne in The Quiet Man
First name
- Thornton Wilder, American playwright
This page lists people with the surname Thornton.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.