Peterson

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A common English and Scandinavian family name meaning son of Peter, carried by many notable people
2. A patronymic surname derived from the given name Peter and meaning Peter's son
3. A hereditary family name originally signifying a descendant of a man called Peter

Etymology: Peterson is a patronymic surname: a name built by adding "-son", meaning "son of", to the personal name Peter. Like many such names, it marks a father's first name as a family label, so that a man called Peter's son became Peterson, and the pattern repeats across Europe. Norwegian and Danish "Pedersen" and "Pettersen," Polish "Piotrowicz," and Slovene "Petrič" and "Petrovič" all follow the same logic with their own suffixes. The naming pattern also crossed the Atlantic. Scandinavian surnames "Petersson" and "Pettersson" were Americanized into forms close to "Peterson," so many English-speaking Petersons trace their line to Swedish or Danish families rather than to an English one. Among English and Scottish bearers, the name follows the same pattern as Jackson, Johnson and Davidson, all of which record a father's first name.