Thompson Surname

Meaning and origin of the surname Thompson

Patronymic surname meaning 'son of Thom' or 'son of Thomas', derived from the biblical Aramaic personal name Ta'oma ('twin') with an intrusive euphonic 'p'.

Historically and linguistically, Thompson belongs to the English and Scottish family of surnames. It is conventionally pronounced "TOM-suhn".

United States Census frequency and ranking

In the official 2010 United States Census, Thompson was recorded 664,644 times, ranking as the 23rd most common surname in the nation.

This represents an incidence rate of approximately 225.32 bearers per 100,000 Americans, or roughly 1 out of every 444 residents.

Race and ethnicity distribution

According to official decennial Census genealogy microdata, individuals bearing the surname Thompsonreported 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 Thompson

Thompson is an English and Scottish patronymic surname formed from Thom (the universal medieval pet form of Thomas) combined with the suffix -son. The intrusive letter 'p' is an unetymological euphonic development that arose naturally in English speech to ease the phonetic transition between the bilabial nasal consonant 'm' and the dental sibilant 's'.

The surname is documented early in northern England, appearing in the 1349 court records of Yorkshire as Ebor Thompson and in the 1379 Yorkshire Poll Tax rolls. It was particularly prevalent across northern England, the Scottish Borders, and Lowland Scotland, where clan Thompson held territories in the Middle Marches of Eskdale and Annandale throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In the United States, Thompson arrived with early seventeenth-century colonists and expanded significantly during Scotch-Irish migration to the Appalachian frontier. In the 2010 United States Census, Thompson ranked as the 23rd most common surname in the nation, recorded 664,644 times (225.32 per 100,000 Americans), maintained by families of diverse British, African-American, and northern European ancestry.

Notable people with the surname Thompson

• Emma Thompson (1959–), British actress and screenwriter, two-time Academy Award winner
• Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005), American journalist and author who founded gonzo journalism
• Klay Thompson (1990–), American professional basketball player and four-time NBA champion
• Ken Thompson (1943–), American computer pioneer and co-designer of Unix and B/Go