Lawson

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, commonly used as a personal surname in English-speaking countries
2. An English surname derived from the medieval given name Lawrence or Law, historically indicating descent from someone called Law or Law's son
3. A surname used to identify individuals or families, particularly common in Britain and other English-speaking regions

Etymology: Lawson is a patronymic surname, meaning "son of Lawrence," built from the given name Lawrence plus the suffix "-son," a common way of marking descent in English and Scandinavian naming. In Scotland and northern England, the name took this form in the same way that Johnson or Jackson did, so a family called Lawson could trace its name back to a forefather who bore the first name Lawrence. The name has a second, unrelated route into American usage. In Sweden, Denmark, Norway and northern Germany, surnames such as Larsen and Larsson, meaning "son of Lars," were common, and some families who emigrated to the United States adopted the anglicized form Lawson in place of these. The result is that one spelling now covers two different ancestries, one Scottish or English and one Scandinavian.