This interesting and unusual name has two possible sources, the first being that it is a dialectal variant of Filzer, a name of German origin. The derivation is from the Old High German "Filz" and it is a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of felt, an important cloth in the medieval period. In the modern idiom, the variants include, Felt(er), Filt(er) and Fild. However, the second possibility is that this name is a variant of the locational name Felton, from places so called in Hertfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset and Northumberland. Most of them derive from the Old English pre 7th Century "feld", pasture and "tun", enclosure but Whitchurch in Somerset has its first element from the Old English "filiethe" and Felton Hill in Northumberland gets its name from the Old English personal name "Fygla", a derivation of "Fugol", bird. There are records in St. Martin-in-the-Field, Westminster of the christenings of two daughters of John and Mary Feltoe, one Mary Feltoe christened on December 1693 and Susanna Feltoe on October 23rd 1699. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Feltere, which was dated 1220, The Friary Roll, Leicestershire, during the reign of King Henry III, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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