Colston Family History

from a Middle English personal name, Colstan, which is probably from Old Norse Kolsteinn, composed of the elements kol ‘charcoal’ + steinn ‘stone’. habitational name from Colston Basset in Nottinghamshire, or the nearby Car Colston, both of which seem to have originally been named from the Old Norse personal name Kolr + Old English tun ‘settlement’. The first syllable of Car Colson was originally the defining prefix kirk ‘church’. habitational name from Coulston in Wiltshire, which is named with the genitive case of an Old English personal name Cufel (diminutive of Cufa) + Old English tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press