Meaning & History
A Scottish place, Seaton near Longniddry, "is so named because it was held from the 12th century by a Norman family de Sey, from Say in Indre. Other places of this name, for example those in Cumbria, Devon, County Durham, Northumbria, and Yorkshire, are mostly named with Old English sæ "sea, lake" and tun "enclosure, settlement". One in Rutland seems to have as its first element an Old English stream name, Sæge (probably meaning "trickling, slow-moving"), or a personal name Sæga. One in Kent is named with Old English seten "plantation, cultivated land"" ('Dictionary of American Family Names'). The name has been in occasional use among American Catholics due to Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), better known as "Mother Seton", the first native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized.