Berton

Meaning of Berton

Berton is a masculine given name of Old English provenance, etymologically composed of the elements bere (“barley”) and tun (“enclosure” or “settlement”), originally employed as a toponymic surname to denote a barley farmstead. Pronounced BUR-tun (British /bɜːtən/, American /bɝːtn̩/), it has maintained only a modest presence in New York birth records between 1917 and 1939, with annual occurrences ranging from five to eight and peak rankings clustered in the 170–190 interval (notably 170th in 1933). Its infrequent adoption confers a measure of historical gravitas and distinctive authenticity, exemplifying an Anglo-American naming tradition that privileges substantive etymological roots and understated permanence over ephemeral popularity.