Sheldon

Sheldon is the transferred use of an English surname into a masculine personal name. The surname finds its origins in several towns so called Sheldon in Derbyshire, Devon and Warwickshire, England; such location-based surnames were given to men who hailed from one of these towns and then relocated elsewhere – it was used as a means of identification. In other words, a man residing in London called Robert Sheldon would be known as the Robert whose birthplace was Sheldon.  Sheldon means “steep-sided valley,” derived from the Olde English elements “scylf” (a shelf or slope) and “denu” (a valley). Such a place name would have been used to describe the area upon which a settlement was built; in this case, a valley with steep sides. The surname appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 rendered as Sildened, later evolving into Sheldon by the 16th century. As a masculine forename, Sheldon, like many surnames-turned-first-names, came into use in the 19th century.