Benson

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, borne by many people ; a name given to several American towns, such as one in Arizona and one in Minnesota
2. A common surname shared by numerous families ; a place name used for a few small communities in the United States
3. A hereditary family name carried by many individuals ; a designation for various American towns and small municipalities

Etymology: Benson is a patronymic surname meaning "son of Ben." The ending "-son" is the Old English "sunu," meaning "son," which English families attached to a father's first name to show whose child a person was. "Ben" is a short form of Benjamin, a Hebrew name usually glossed as "son of the right hand," so the surname is, in a sense, a son of a son. Many English surnames were formed this way, and the same pattern gives us Johnson, Jackson and Wilson, where the father's name is simply followed by "-son."