From an article Maxine Dimeler found in the Middletown Journal of June 19, 1894.

Late in the year of 1888, before any action was taken concerning incorporating Port Royal and Furnace Hill into a single borough, Mr. M. Luther Bausman and Rev. H. G. Lehman were walking toward Geyer's Church, hunting squirrels. (Rev. Lehman was Pastor of the Royalton Church. He bought the church a few years later when it was auctioned off at a Sheriff sale.)

While walking along the men talked of the need for a supervisor to maintain the roads in the winter; then to the future of Furnace Hill. They also spoke of the need for a railroad bridge on Burd Street, as well as other improvements that had already been made in the borough.

Both men expressed the opinion that the community should either become attached to Middletown, or it should be made a borough in itself. If a borough, it should have a name; but Rev. Lehman wasn't satisfied with either Port Royal or Furnace Hill for the town's name. While "Port Royal" was quite well known and respected, Pennsylvania already had a post office by that name.

Mr. Bausman then suggested Branchtown or Branchtop, but those names didn't suit Rev. Lehman either. He preferred a name that suggested the old, yet would still be new and easily written. "What about 'Royalton'?" he asked.

Mr. Bausman liked the name Royalton, and suggested that they tell people the town's name had been changed, but not who changed it.

When the men returned home they jokingly told their families and a few friends of the proposed name change, little thinking anything would ever be done about it.

But somehow the word got out. A few days later some pre-Halloween pranksters tacked a large strip of paper over the Pennsy railroad intersection with the word ROYALTON written on it. So the rumor spread.

Later, when representatives of Furnace Hill and Port Royal gathered to consider the incorporation of the new borough and select its name, ROYALTON was one of several names submitted. But of all those submitted, ROYALTON seemed the favorite, and was unanimously adopted.