National Colton Day – September 18, 2024

History of National Colton Day

Colton is originally an Irish surname but is now very common as an English first name. It was derived from the variations O’Cómhaltáin and Collin. The surname Colin was anglicized as ‘Colton.’ It has now become a common English first name that means ‘from the coal’ or ‘coal town.’

The first recorded use of the name O’Cómhaltáin was in 964 A.D. by Comhaltán Ua Cleirigh, King of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne. Uí Fiachrach Aidhne was a kingdom that is now south of County Galway. The surname Colton is accosted with the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain, with many locations named Colton in Staffordshire, Norfolk, and Yorkshire. The first English family with this surname is associated with John Colton, born in 1404. The name also has strong British roots. This is related to Irish immigration to Great Britain which occurred over centuries. The earliest record of Irish people settling in Great Britain began in the early Middle Ages. Since then, there have been around 10 million Irish immigrants, which is more than the current population of Ireland itself. Ireland currently has 6.6 million people and peaked at 8.5 million during the Great Famine from 1845 to 1849.

With the discovery of the New World, Irish people began migrating to North America during the 1600s, most of whom resided in Virginia. This migration was documented in a well-known Irish ballad called “The Green Fields of America,” in which the migrants comment about having decent pay and no taxes to “devour up your wages.” The Colton family lineage could be traced to the Kennedy family.