Macon
A surname that can point to a French place name, most likely linked to the city of Mâcon in eastern France.
The #5,013 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 44,056 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most plausibly locational, referring to someone from Mâcon, a town and historic city in Burgundy, France. In older surname scholarship, French forms such as Macon/Mâcon are often treated as place-based names rather than direct occupational or descriptive surnames. The place-name itself is ancient, though the surname sense is simply “from Mâcon.”
History
The historical excerpts connect Macon to French surname forms and to place-name surnames in France, but they do not give a direct dictionary entry for this specific surname. In English-speaking countries, Macon may also appear as an Anglicized spelling of the French place-name surname or as a surname adopted independently from the same toponymic source. Because the evidence here is indirect, the exact line of descent can vary by family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Mâcon is also the name of a well-known wine town on the Saône River in eastern France, which helps explain why it has long served as a surname source.
From the historical record
“Mason. Fl. Meessen ; Fr. Macon, Masson ; p.n. Massey. From Massay ; a loc. n., France. Or Massey, Wilts”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (1st ed.)