Layton is a surname erived from various place names in England. Two known etymologies stem from place names in Lancashire (near Blackpool) and another in north Yorkshire. The former was named in Old English as ‘settlement by the watercourse’, from Old English lād ‘watercourse’ + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; the latter as ‘leek enclosure’ or ‘herb garden’, from lēac ‘leek’ + tūn. Also often spelled as Leighton.