First, we know that this sort of Scandinavian last name is a patronymic, a surname formed by adding -son to someone's father's name, and it means “son of.” Trace such a name back far enough, and you'll find that someone named John Carlson, for instance, was John, son of Carl.
Sweden abounds in names ending in “-son” because of an old Nordic practice, before hereditary surnames were introduced, of using the father's first name, and the suffix “-son” for a son, or “-dotter” for a daughter.
The suffixes -son/-s/-kin/-kins/-ken at the end of an English name denote “son of” or “little.” Julia Roberts probably descends from someone who was, at the time surnames were being taken, the son of a man named Robert. The same with someone named Robertson.
The patronymic naming system was used in all of Scandinavia. That means a person's family name was formed by taking the first name of the natural father and adding a suffix identifying their gender to it. This allows you to identify a person's father.
Son, Sohn or Shon (孫, 손) is a common Korean family name. It is a transliteration of the Chinese surname Sun.
Son is a common last name found among Overseas Chinese communities around the world. In fact, "Son" is the transliteration of several different Chinese surnames. Its meaning varies depending on how it is spelled in Chinese, and which dialect it is pronounced in.
Where Does Son Rank in the Most Common U.S. Names? According to the data, Son is ranked #3,541 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
“Vikings were not restricted to genetically pure Scandinavians,” says Willerslev, “but were a diverse group of peoples with diverse ancestry.” In fact, some who adopted the trappings of Viking identity were not Scandinavian at all.
Whether they got tested by Ancestry DNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage, or some other company, anyone with European ancestors is likely to show some degree of Scandinavian ancestry. In fact, a lot of people have a much higher percentage than they expected.
One third of all Swedish surnames end with –son. Svensson, Johansson, Gustavsson belong to the most common last names in Sweden. (Source: SCB.) Those names are so common, that you can expect to find at least one of them on a door in each Swedish apartment building.
There is a lot of history in the art of naming in Norway. Historically, Viking children were named after a deceased relative with the belief that the luck of that person would attach to the child and bring them success.
A Danish patronymic surname can be identified because it ends in the suffix -sen, which means “son.” Thus, Larsen is “Lars' son,” Pedersen is “Peder's son,” and so on. The following are 20 the most common Danish surnames — all are patronymic in origin. For the top 100 surnames, go to mydanishroots.com. 1.
In other words, the suffix “er,” as in “Schumacher” (a cobbler,) and the suffix “ler,” (depending on the area of Germany they are from, or the last letter of the word which may require an “l” before the suffix “er,”) can often denote a profession in someone's ancestry.
For example, when a couple has a child, the tradition is to add “son” or “daughter” to the end of the Father's name. Under this system, if your Icelandic Father's name is Magnus, and you are the son of Magnus, your last name would be Magnusson - this tells people that you are the son of Magnus.
This is a doctrine based on the patriarchal assumption that a father's surname would deepen the family institution or provide children with more financial security later in life. Or, it is the easiest way to ensure the family name's legacy.
Traditionally, there are no family names in Iceland. Iceland is keen to hold onto the old patronymic (increasingly matronymic) custom whereby the child is given its father's or mother's Christian name and is referred to as the son or daughter of.
“It's pretty clear from the genetic analysis that Vikings are not a homogenous group of people,” says Willerslev. “A lot of the Vikings are mixed individuals” with ancestry from both Southern Europe and Scandinavia, for example, or even a mix of Sami (Indigenous Scandinavian) and European ancestry.
The genetic legacy of the Viking Age lives on today with six per cent of people of the UK population predicted to have Viking DNA in their genes compared to 10 per cent in Sweden.
As descendants of the Vikings, people from Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Norway, and Sweden—are the most likely to carry Viking DNA. However, their genetic footprint extends far beyond Scandinavia due to the Vikings' extensive exploration, raiding, and colonization during the Viking Age (around 793-1066 AD).
Through DNA testing, it is possible to effectively trace your potential inner Viking and discover whether it forms part of your genetic makeup or not. However, it's not 100% definitive. There's no exact Nordic or Viking gene that is passed down through the generations.
Many people share DNA with Vikings, but without a Vikings ancestry test, you'd have no way of knowing it. Viking genetic traits can look like traits from all over the world, so you wouldn't necessarily know you had them without a test.
Hjor and Ljufvina had two sons: the twins Hamund (Håmund) and Geirmund. They, too, had dark skin and were therefore nicknamed Heljarskinn; the “Black-Skinned”. Geirmund the Black-Skinned – the black Viking – never became king at Avaldsnes.
Boy names that end in son are among the oldest and most classic male names around. The top boy name ending in -son is Mason, which ranks in the Top 10. Along with Mason, boy names ending in son in the US Top 100 include Jackson, Grayson, Carson, Jameson, Bryson, and Jason.