Jamison
A patronymic surname meaning “son of James,” especially associated with Scotland and northern England.
The #1,270 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,147 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Jamison is a patronymic surname built from the personal name James plus the suffix -son, literally meaning “son of James.” The name James ultimately comes through medieval forms of Latin and Old French, but in surname use the key point is simply descent from a man named James. Historical forms and spellings include Jameson, Jamieson, Jamson, Jemison, and Jimison.
History
19th-century surname writers noted that Jamison and its close variants were especially common in northern England and among Lowland Scottish families. The name also appears in Ireland, where it is found in county groupings such as Antrim and Down in older surveys. In modern usage, Jamison sits alongside Jameson and Jamieson as one of several related spellings.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname studies treated Jamison as a close regional cousin of Jameson and Jamieson rather than as a completely separate family name.
From the historical record
“Jamloon, Jamson.— Bapt. 'the son of James.' The purely English Jamison and its variants are ahnost entirely confined to NorthEngtand, and indeed the great majority are of Lowland Scottish descent. On the other liand, James as a surname ia as often South English as North,”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances