Anderson Surname

Meaning and origin of the surname Anderson

Patronymic surname meaning 'son of Andrew', derived from the Greek personal name Andreas, meaning 'manly', 'courageous', or 'valiant'.

Historically and linguistically, Anderson belongs to the Scottish, English and Scandinavian family of surnames. It is conventionally pronounced "AN-dər-suhn".

United States Census frequency and ranking

In the official 2010 United States Census, Anderson was recorded 784,404 times, ranking as the 15th most common surname in the nation.

This represents an incidence rate of approximately 265.92 bearers per 100,000 Americans, or roughly 1 out of every 376 residents.

Race and ethnicity distribution

According to official decennial Census genealogy microdata, individuals bearing the surname Andersonreported the following racial and ethnic affiliations in the 2010 US Census:

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 Census Surnames Data. Percentages may not sum to exactly 100% due to independent rounding or suppression of small cell counts for privacy protection.

History of the surname Anderson

Anderson is a patronymic surname meaning 'son of Andrew'. The underlying personal name Andrew derives from Greek Andreas ('manly', 'valiant'), borne by the apostle Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. Because Saint Andrew was profoundly revered in medieval Scotland, Andrew became one of the most widely bestowed given names in the Scottish kingdom, naturally generating the widespread patronymic Anderson.

Early Scottish records document David le fiz Andreu in Dumfriesshire in 1296 and Johnne Andersoun in Aberdeen in 1443. The Andersons were formally recognized in the Scottish Highlands as Septs of Clan Ross and Clan Chattan. In Scandinavia, the cognate patronymics Andersson (Swedish) and Andersen (Danish and Norwegian) were extremely common. When hundreds of thousands of Scandinavian immigrants settled across the American Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Illinois) during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, their names were overwhelmingly Anglicized as Anderson.

In the 2010 United States Census, Anderson ranked as the 15th most prevalent surname nationwide, recorded 784,404 times. About 75 percent of American bearers identified as White and 19 percent as Black or African American. The name maintains an exceptionally dense geographic presence in the northern Midwest and Great Plains.