Fulton

Fulton came into given-name use through a surname associated with Fulton in the Scottish Borders. The place name is traced to Old English words for a bird and an enclosure or settlement, giving the sense settlement of birds. The language of the old place name and the Scottish history of the surname are both parts of its background.

The surname is familiar through Robert Fulton, whose work helped establish commercially successful steam navigation. That bearer gives Fulton an association with engineering and invention, separate from its literal place-name meaning. As a first name, it can preserve a family surname or offer a link with that industrial history, while retaining the structure of an older British place name.