Payton

English

"fighting man's estate"

Payton Origin and Meaning

The name Payton is a girl's name of English origin meaning "fighting man's estate".

Rarely used until the 90s, Payton rose up the charts when it was popularized by the football star, Peyton Manning, and, interestingly, by the character of "Peyton Flanders", the villainess of the 1992 film, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.

Derived from an English place name and surname, Payton could mean "Pæga's town" or "fighting man's estate", though other sources associate it with Patton and Patrick, giving it the meaning "nobleman's town". With both surnames-as-given-names and place names in style, Payton remains in the US Top 400.

Back in the early 2000s, Payton leaned more towards being (statistically) unisex, and it was given to roughly 2200 girls and 1400 boys. In more recent years however, the number of boys called Payton has dwindled, and now, it is given to girls 90% of the time.

As of 2023, the spelling variation Peyton was nearly twice as popular as Payton for girls, and ranked significantly higher in the UK and Canada too, perhaps because of its links to Peyton Place which could make it feel more intuitive.

Payton Stork (nee Ackerman) of Dance Moms fame is a notable bearer of this spelling.

Payton Rank in US Top 1000

# 310 in the US

Payton Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 1266 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Payton

• 310 US 2023
• 1266 Nameberry 2025
• 65 Unisex 2023
• 937 England 2023

20 Names Similar to Payton

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Payton.

• Oakleigh
• Camryn
• Bailey
• Kendall
• Rylee
• Kenzie
• Paislee
• Baylee
• Kinslee
• Karlee
• Mckenna
• Kamryn
• Charlee
• Ryan
• Brylee
• Rylie
• Everlee
• Saige
• Cameron
• Blayke

Famous People Named Payton

• Payton Ackerman American dancer and reality TV personality
• Payton Leigh American adult film actress
• Payton Sprague daughter of baseball player Ed Sprague, Jr.
• Payton Tyner daughter of baseball player Jason Tyner
• Payton Marie Kunitz (b. 2011) daughter of ice hockey player Chris Kunitz
• Payton June Barinholtz (b. 2016) daughter of actor Ike Barinholtz

The name Payton in Pop Culture

• Payton Perotta character from TV series "Bones"