Colston is a very old name and is believed to be a locational or place name from a now “lost” village somewhere in Nottinghamshire. It is believed that people from that village took on the name of the place as their surname as a method of identifying where they were from. The place name itself is believed to have started out as Kola's tun which is composed of the two words “kol”, a viking term for coal or black, and “tun” which meant a settlement or enclosure.