A variety of place names in that part of Scotland and northern England suggest the family may have taken its name from the places where they lived rather than the places from a person. The most prominent of these places is the parish of Kelton, a rural area of Scotland located about 30 miles southwest of Dumfries in the district of Dumfries and Galloway. The church is located near Kelton Hill, which is the location of the Threave Gardens, an important tourist attraction in the area owned by the National Trust of Scotland. Other place names nearby are Mid Kelton, the Lodge of Kelton and Kelton Mains. A village named Kelton is really no more than a collection of houses three miles south of Dumfries.
Current residents are uncertain of the origin of the village's name.
The Kelton Iron Mine, which took its name from Keltonfell Top, operated from 1868 to 1913 about six miles east of Whitehaven. The Kelton family crest, which Richard L. Kelton described, appears to have been taken from Burke's General Armory , a book of family coats of arm. The largest city in Salop is Shrewsbury. A record exists of an Arthur Kelton from the mid-1500s, who was the heir of Thomas Kelton of Shrewsbury, by Mary, daughter of George Ponsbury. He applied himself to history.