From Old English meaning 'settlement of free peasants' or 'Charles's town.'
Charlton is an English place name and surname that migrated into use as a given name, following the long British and American tradition of surname-as-first-name. Its topographic meaning comes from Old English: "ceorla tun," a settlement (tun) of free men or peasants (ceorl) — the latter word being the origin of the modern English word "churl," though in its original sense it designated a free commoner rather than a rude person. Several villages named Charlton exist across England, particularly in the south, and the surname derived from families who originated in those places.
The name's most commanding twentieth-century bearer was Charlton Heston (1923–2008), the American actor whose physical presence and resonant baritone made him the natural choice for epic roles. He played Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), the title character in Ben-Hur (1959) — winning the Academy Award for Best Actor — Michelangelo, Judah Ben-Hur, El Cid, and a parade of historical giants.
Heston's career made Charlton synonymous with a certain monumental gravitas, a name that seemed carved rather than spoken. He also became a significant figure in the American civil rights movement before his later political career took a different direction. As a given name, Charlton peaked in the mid-twentieth century, largely carried by Heston's fame.
It has since become rare, which gives it the appeal of neglected vintage — masculine and weighty without being stiff, carrying the faint grandeur of epic cinema alongside its Anglo-Saxon working-common roots. For parents who love surnames-as-first-names with genuine historical depth, Charlton is a compelling and underused option.