Origin and popularity of the name SAMSON

Origin

Samson : 1: English Welsh French Breton German Dutch Jewish Filipino African (mainly Nigeria Tanzania and Ethiopia) and West Indian (mainly Haiti); Hungarian (Sámson): from the Biblical personal name Samson (Hebrew Shimshon a diminutive of shemesh ‘sun’). Among Christians it was sometimes chosen as a personal name or nickname with reference to the great strength of the Biblical hero (Judges 13–16). In Wales another association was with the 6th-century Welsh bishop Samson who traveled to Brittany where he died and was greatly venerated. His name which is probably an altered form of an unknown Celtic original was popularized in England by Breton followers of William the Conqueror and to some extent independently from Wales. The English surname has been established in Ireland since the 14th century. In France this surname is most common in Morbihan (Brittany). Compare Sampson. — Note: Since Ethiopians do not have hereditary surnames the Ethiopian name was registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US.2: Filipino: Chinese Filipino surname formed with Chinese 孫 or sūn ‘grandchild’ as the second element. The first element 三 in Chinese means ‘third’ a reference to birth order. See also 1 above.

Sacha : Polish: from a pet form of a personal name beginning with Sa- (for example Sambor Salomon Samson Samuel) or of Aleksander (see Alexander).

Samme : from a pet form of the Middle English personal name Samson (see Sampson). See also Sampe.

Sampe : from a pet form of the Middle English personal name Samson (see Sampson).

Sampson : 1: English Welsh and Jewish: variant of Samson. The -p- was introduced in the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Shimshon.2: English: of Norman origin a habitational name from any of the French places called Saint-Samson (Seine-Maritime Calvados) including Saint-Samson-de-Bonfosse (Manche) and Saint-Samson-de-la-Roque (Eure) so called from the dedication of their churches to Saint Samson of Dol the Welsh bishop (see Samson).4: Americanized form of French Breton German and Dutch Samson.3: Greek: from the personal name Sampson (see 1 above) or an American shortened form of any of various patronymics derived from this name e.g. Sampsonidis and Sampsonoglou.

Takle : probably from an Anglo-Norman French given name Takel or Tachel in origin a Continental Germanic name Dacil(us) *Tacil(us). This was a pet form of names in Dag- Tag- ‘day’ such as Dagobert 1086 in Domesday Book (Gloucs). The double diminutive form Dachelin is recorded in 1086 in Domesday Book (Dorset) and as the surname of Alicia Dacolyn 1346 in Feudal Aids (Beds). The earliest known bearer of the surname is a Lincs knight with the forename Samson a particular favourite among Bretons many of whom were given estates in Lincs after the Conquest. This tells against Reaney's suggestion that the source of the name is an unrecorded Old English given name *Tæcela though it remains a theoretical possibility.

Tollick : late variant of Tallack. Compare Georgij Tallack 1599 Tho. Tollack 1652 in IGI (Helston Cornwall); Sampson Tallack 1700 Samson Tollack 1707 in IGI (Saint Agnes near Truro Cornwall).

Vanstone : English (Devon): habitational name from Fauntstone in Shaugh (Devon). The place probably takes its name from the surname Faunt (genitive Fauntes) + Middle English toun ‘farmstead estate’ meaning ‘farmstead of the Faunt family’ and probably to be associated with the family of Samson le Enfaunt a juror of Plympton Hundred in Devon in 1249. For the surname Faunt see Fant.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 257,075 individuals with the name SAMSON on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name SAMSON