Ashton is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Maryland. The commercial center of Ashton lies at the junction of Route 108 and New Hampshire Avenue. It is not positively known how Ashton got its name. Some longtime residents claim that it comes from reference to a large Ash tree that stood at the junction of routes 108 and 650. Others say that it is the melding of the names of two Thomas Family homes, Ashland and Clifton, each located a mile from the junction. The United States Census Bureau combines Ashton with the nearby community of Sandy Spring to form the census-designated place of Ashton-Sandy Spring, and all census data are tabulated for this combined entity.A new village shopping center was planned to begin construction in 2006 at the corner of Route 108 and New Hampshire Avenue, where the current Sandy Spring Bank offices are located, consisting of about a 7 to 10-acre plot. It would possibly be anchored with a grocery store, as yet undetermined.