Surnames appears to have originated in France in the 10^th century and were introduced into Scotland in the 11^th century , although the custom of using them was not common for many years afterwards. In 1061 King Malcolm directed his chief subjects to adapt surnames after their territorial possessions. The nobles and the great land owners thus began to call themselves after the lands they possessed.

It is suggested that the history of the Houstouns could well go back to the 8^th century when the Norwegians travelled south and began to settle on the coast of France . Because they came from the north they were called Normans.

In 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England and his Norman nobles took up land there.  In 1138 King David  I. of Scotland invaded England to support the claim of his neice, Maude, to the English throne which had been seized by Stephen of Blois following the death by food poisoning of Henry I.  King David was joined by several Norman nobles as he marched into England. King David lost to an English force near Northallerton and retreated. As the Norman nobles were now in a precarious position the King invited them back to Scotland and rewarded them with land   One of these nobles was Walter Fitz Alan whom King David  made 1^st Great Steward of Scotland whose  descendants became Stewarts, Kings of Scotland, Earls of Lennox and many other titles, and to whom the Houstoun chiefs remained very loyal. King Malcolm IV (1153-65) granted Strathgryfe – the valleys of the water of Gryfe and its tributaries, comprising, what is effectly, the whole of Renfrewshire -   to Walter the Steward and the lands were given on to certain individuals including Kilpeter in Strathgryfe  to Hugo de Pad’inan, the accredited ancestor of the Houstouns.

The surname of Houstoun did not originate until the late 12^th or early 13^th century when Hugo was given the land of Kilpeter.  Perhaps the surname should have been Kilpeter  but when Hugo built his castle on the land, the local Celts gradually built their houses outside the castle walls until some years later, when Hugo’s grandson Hugh was laird of the castle, there was probably quite a small village or town there. Being built on Hugh’s land it became known as Hugh’s town or Huwestoun and later the spelling was Houstoun. Over many years the name has been spelt 24 different ways but it is thought that only those with only slight variations of the name are likely descendants. The Houstouns gradually spread throughout the west and south west of Scotland, some north to the highlands and some south to England, Ireland and around the world.