Edmiston
A Scottish surname most likely tied to the old place-name Ednam, later reshaped through dialect and spelling changes.
The #7,404 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,686 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Edmiston is generally treated as a Scottish surname formed from a place-name. The historical sources suggest a connection with Ednam, with one older writer noting a very altered form such as "Edmiston" or "Edmond-stoune"; this points to a locational origin rather than a direct occupational meaning. The ultimate place-name elements are not perfectly certain from the excerpts, so the surname is best understood as a name attached to a locality that underwent heavy phonetic and scribal change.
History
The name appears in Scottish records, including a 17th-century bearer styled Sir William Edmiston of Duntreath. Later surname writers linked it with a place-name in the Scottish Borders, and the spelling likely stabilized only gradually. Modern bearers are concentrated in English-speaking countries, especially the United States, Scotland, and other parts of the wider Scottish diaspora.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname scholars even described the form as an “extraordinary corruption,” showing how wildly place-names could shift in medieval and early modern records.
From the historical record
“EDNAM. According to Nisbet this is the same name as Edmiston or Edmond- stoune — an extraordinary corruption. EGAN.* The sept of JMac Egan were territorially seized of Clan-Dearmida, a dis- trict in the barony of Leitrim, co. Galway ;”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom