Queen
Usually a nickname or an anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Queen, the surname can also reflect a place-name connected with a royal stronghold.
The #1,945 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,638 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In English, Queen could begin as a nickname or byname from the word for a queen, ultimately from Old English cwēn, meaning a queen or woman. Some early surname dictionaries also treat it as an abbreviated form of the Gaelic Mac Queen, literally “son of Queen,” with the Mac dropped when the name was anglicized. A separate place-name source is also noted in older scholarship for Queenborough, though that is more directly connected to local names than to the surname itself.
History
Older surname writers record Queen both in England and in Scottish/Irish contexts, which suggests more than one route into the surname. In Scotland especially, it was often treated as a shortened form of Mac Queen. The English nickname sense is also plausible, and the surname is now well established in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname dictionaries sometimes grouped Queen with both nicknames and Gaelic surnames, showing how a short name could have multiple independent origins.
From the historical record
“QUEELY, a form of Quilley, q.v. QUEEN (Eng.) a nickname and festival-name [O.E. <w^», queen ; wife] (Celt.) an abbrev. of Mac Queen, q.v. QUEENBOROUGH (Eng.) Bel. to Queen- borough, Queeniborough = the Queen's Stronghold [O.E. cw4n, queen + hurhi stronghold] Queeniborough, Leic, was Quenhure in the 13th cent.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)