Dennison

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, passed down through generations ; a small town in the state of Ohio in the northern United States
2. An inherited surname found mainly in England and North America ; a community located in Ohio in the eastern Midwest of the United States
3. A hereditary family name of English descent ; a place name referring to a small municipality in the American state of Ohio

Etymology: Dennison is a surname built from the given name Dennis plus the Germanic-derived suffix "-son," meaning "son of." The pattern is the same one behind Johnson, Robinson and Thompson: a father's first name, with "-son" added to mark the child. Dennis itself comes from the Greek "Dionysios," a name tied to the god Dionysus, which passed into Medieval Latin and then into English and French forms of the name. Dennison therefore means, in effect, "son of Dennis." Surnames of this type arose in England and elsewhere as a way of distinguishing one family from another, so a bearer of the name carries the name of an ancestor who was known by the given name Dennis.