Albertson
A patronymic surname meaning “son of Albert.”
The #3,580 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 31,052 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Albertson is a patronymic surname built from the personal name Albert plus the English suffix -son, meaning “son of.” The given name Albert comes from old Germanic elements usually explained as meaning “noble” and “bright,” so the surname originally identified someone as the son of a man named Albert. Older surname dictionaries also note that forms like Albert and Albertson were already in use in English records, while German-looking forms such as Albrecht are distinct later imports.
History
The name is especially common in English-speaking countries, where it developed as a straightforward hereditary family name from the medieval personal name Albert. In the 19th-century surname literature, Albertson is treated alongside other patronymics such as Johnson and Williamson, rather than as a place-name or occupational surname. It is still found in the United States and other Anglophone regions, often as an inherited surname rather than a literal one-generation identifier.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century genealogical writers sometimes grouped Albertson with other surnames that look like ordinary given names plus -son, because that pattern was easy to recognize in records.
From the historical record
“AUbright, Albreoht, Albert, Albertson, Albright — Bapt. ' the son of Ailbiit'; in Domesday AilbrihL Albrecht is a German immigrant of much later dale. AU- bright is English. Albert, again,”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances