What is the origin of the surname Payton?

Answer 1

It's English, from Essex and Suffolk:

Matthew de Peytun, in 1240 is the first recorded use of the name as a name for a person, in the Feet of Fine for Essex, housed at the Essex Archeological society.

The first recorded use of the name as a placename is in the Doomsday Book, 1087. It is was a manor near Ramsholt, on the Deben River in Suffolk.

The name is derived from "Peaga's Tun", Tun being a Saxon word for farm.