Littleton

English

Etymology

From Old English lȳtel (“small, little”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”), equivalent to little +‎ -ton.

Proper noun

Littleton (countable and uncountable, plural Littletons)

1. A village in County Tipperary, Ireland.
2. A locality in the Lithgow council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.
3. A number of places in England:
   1. A village and civil parish in Cheshire West and Chester borough, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ4466).
   2. A hamlet in Blandford St Mary parish, Dorset (OS grid ref ST8904).
   3. A village in Littleton and Harestock parish, Winchester district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU4532).
   4. A hamlet in Chew Magna parish, Bath and North East Somerset council area, Somerset (OS grid ref ST5563).
   5. A hamlet in Compton Dundon parish, Somerset, previously in South Somerset district (OS grid ref ST4930).
   6. A hamlet in Artington parish, Guildford borough, Surrey (OS grid ref SU9847).
   7. A village near Shepperton, Spelthorne borough, Surrey (OS grid ref TQ0768).
   8. A hamlet in Semington parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST9060).
4. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A home rule municipality, the county seat of Arapahoe County, Colorado.
      • 2012 April 3, Laura Smith-Spark, “Are mass killings on the increase? Criminologist says no”, in CNN‎^[1]:

        In 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives in the school library.

   2. A village in Schuyler County, Illinois.
   3. An unincorporated community in Buchanan County, Iowa.
   4. An unincorporated community in Clay County, Kentucky.
   5. A town in Aroostook County, Maine.
   6. A town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
   7. A town in Grafton County, New Hampshire.
   8. A town in Halifax County, North Carolina.
   9. A census-designated place in Wetzel County, West Virginia.
5. A habitational surname from Old English.

Derived terms

• High Littleton
• Littleton and Harestock
• South Littleton

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Littleton is the 3581^st most common surname in the United States, belonging to 9939 individuals. Littleton is most common among White (74.9%) and Black/African American (20.26%) individuals.

References

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Littleton”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 447.