Polson
A surname meaning “son of Paul,” with a rare secondary possibility of “Poll’s son” from a pet form of Mary.
The #8,027 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,847 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The main explanation given in the older surname dictionaries is that Polson means “the son of Pol,” with Pol being a short form of Paul. Paul itself comes through Latin from a Roman name meaning “small” or “humble.” A rarer alternative noted by one source is that it may sometimes have been taken as “Poll’s son,” where Poll is a pet form of Mary.
History
The name is recorded in English surname collections as a fairly uncommon patronymic. Because Pol was used as a short form of Paul, Polson belongs to the large family of surnames built from personal names plus “son.” The occasional matronymic explanation reflects the way medieval nicknames could be reinterpreted, but the Paul-based origin is the standard one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers sometimes grouped Polson with a surprising cluster of nicknames from Mary, because Poll was once used as a pet form of that name.
From the historical record
“POLLY, V. Polley. POLSON (Lat. + E.) Paul's Son : v. Paul. (rarely) (A.-Heb.) Poll's Son: Poll, used as a pet fbrm of Mary = Bitterness [Heb. mdrdh] POMEROY ] (A.-Fr.-Lat. ) Dweller at an POMMERY I Apple - Orchard [Fr. pom- POMROY ymeraie, apple - orchard ; L.Lat. pomeretum (re/«»«, plantation suff.), apple-”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)