Allison (surname)

Allison
Family name
Region of origin Scotland, England
Related names Allison, Alison, Alinson, Allinson, McAllister, MacAllister, Ellison[1]

Allison is a family name of English and Scottish origin.[2][3]

When used as a given name it is traditionally masculine,[2] as opposed to the feminine name Alison.

Alison, variant form Alizon, is a surname of French origin.[4]

Origins

The earliest recording of the surname in found in England from 1248, when a "William Alisun" is recorded in the Documents of the Abbey of Bee in Buckinghamshire. In Scotland, the earliest record dates from 1296, when "Patrick Alissone, Count of Berwick" paid homage to the ruling council of Scotland in the absence of a proclaimed king.[1]

Leonard Allison Morrison states in his History of the Alison and Allison family that the family name Allison is interchangeable with Allenson and Alençon. He alludes to a Castle Alençon where the Dukes of Alençon had a family seat in Britain, this family branch being schisms of the Counts and Dukes of Alençon, of Alençon in Normandy. Other sources say the name is descended from Angus Mor MacDonnell, Lord of the Isles, whose Gaelic name was MacAllister.[1]

More elementary is the idea that Allison and Ellison are derived from the surname Ellis, with the meaning 'son of Ellis'.[2]

List of persons with the surname

Alison
Allison
Allyson

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Allison Family Crest and History". Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Allison - Name Meaning and Origin Ancestry.com
  3. "Surname Database: Allison Last Name Origin". Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  4. Albert Dauzat, Noms et prénoms de France, Librairie Larousse 1980, édition revue et commentée par Marie-Thérèse Morlet. p. 6a.