Habitational Surnames

America has fallen in love with Hayes and Brooks and Banks and Rhodes, and now, parents are turning to Townes. With its fashionable S ending and image that can read as preppy or country or cowboy, depending on the context, Townes feels destined for mainstream success.
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Given to 116 boys in a recent year, Townes was virtually unheard of as a given name before the 2000s but has been a fast climbing choice since the 2010s. Blending the surname and plural name trends, it has also been used on a small handful of girls in recent years. 
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Townes Van Zandt was a country and folk singer/songwriter.

Townes

Habitational surnames originated to denote the place where a person lived.

Habitational surnames might be broad, like Blair, which means "dweller on the plain", or Logan, meaning "small hollow". In the days when many fewer first names were in common use, you could distinguish people as William from the hollow or William from the plain.

Other habitational surnames indicate a particular town or country, like Desmond, which denotes someone from South Munster in Ireland, or Sebastian, which means "from Sebastia".

Many habitational surnames have now migrated to become firsts, such as Everly or Brooks. Most habitational surnames have been traditionally used for boys, but many are becoming gender neutral. Names ending in -ley, which means meadow, have often been used for girls.

Habitational surnames originally denoted where someone lived. (Page 8)