Houghton

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A town or locality primarily found in England and various regions of North America, commonly used as a geographical designation
2. A place-name applied to settlements in England and across North America, typically referring to a village or municipal district
3. A geographical term denoting a town or area in England or North American locations that bears this historical place-name

Etymology: Houghton is a place-name word before it is anything else, and its parts are plain. The first element is Old English "hōh", meaning a ridge or spur of land, a projecting shoulder of higher ground. The second is "tūn", which in Old English meant an enclosure, and then a farmstead or settlement built within one. Put together, the name describes a farmstead or village on a ridge. That is why the word turns up so often in England as a surname and as the name of towns and villages. Each Houghton began as a settlement on a rise in the landscape, and the name was attached to the place long before it became a family name carried by people who had no connection to any particular hill.