Johansson

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A common Swedish family name meaning son of Johan, borne by many people across Scandinavia and elsewhere
2. A patronymic surname of Swedish origin, formed from the given name Johan with the suffix meaning son of
3. A Scandinavian family name derived from the personal name Johan, carried by numerous individuals of Swedish descent

Etymology: Johansson is a patronymic surname: "-sson" means "son of," so the name literally says "son of Johan." Swedish naming followed this pattern for centuries, with each generation's surname tied to the father's first name rather than to a shared family name passed down unchanged. The same logic gives Danish and Norwegian "Jensen" and Scottish "Johnson," which is why this word is a doublet of "Johnson," two forms of one name that reached English by different routes. The base name Johan is itself a Scandinavian form of "John," from Latin "Johannes," which came from Greek "Ioannes" and ultimately from Hebrew "Yohanan," meaning "God is gracious." Because "Johan" was among the most common male names across Scandinavia, the "-sson" suffix produced a name that many unrelated families could carry at once, which helps explain why so many people with this surname exist today.