Kenton is an English surname and place name meaning "royal settlement" or "town on the river Kenn", from the Old English cyne, royal, and tun, enclosure. It shares its first syllable with Kenneth and Kent and its ending with Trenton and Clinton. In the United States Kenton stood at number 1031 in 2000, its best rank in the data, and has eased down to number 1758 among boys' names in 2025.