Tolson
Usually an English patronymic surname meaning “son of Toll,” with Toll commonly a pet form of Thomas.
The #6,093 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 54,839 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-supported explanation is that Tolson is a patronymic built from the personal name Toll, a medieval pet form of Thomas. In that reading, the surname means “son of Toll” or “son of Thomas.” Some 19th-century writers also treated related spellings as corruptions or local variants of Tomlinson, which points to the same Thomas-name family.
History
Harrison explicitly glosses Tolson as “Toll’s son,” and Bardsley groups Tolson, Toulson, and Towlson among northern English surname forms connected with Thomas. The name appears in English records in several spellings, especially in northern England and later in the United States. Because early surname spellings were fluid, Tolson has sometimes been confused with or reshaped into related forms such as Toulson or Towlson.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname dictionaries link Tolson so closely with Tomlinson that they describe it as a reduced or altered form of that much larger Thomas surname family.
From the historical record
“tolnere'] TOLSON, Toll's Son : v. ToM. TOM, like Thorn, a dim. of Thomas, q.v. TOMALIN for Tomlin, q.v. TOMAN (Eng.) a syncopated form of Tolman, q.v. (Celt.) a nickname f. the Ir. toman, a 'bush,' a 'tuff.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)