Alcorn
A surname most likely from a place-name, meaning “from Alchome/Alcorn,” with the spelling later simplified.
The #4,498 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 39,161 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest historical clue points to a locational surname from an English place called Alchome, a manor in Sussex linked in early records with families bearing the name. The name appears to have been reduced and reshaped over time, with forms like Alchome, Alchorn, and Alcorn all reflecting the same local origin. A few 19th-century writers also treated it as related to Corn or “small corn,” but that looks more like a playful association than the main surname origin.
History
Medieval records cited by Bardsley place bearers of the name in several counties, including Kent, Oxfordshire, and Sussex. The surname later spread beyond England and is now found especially in English-speaking countries, including the United States. Modern American usage preserves the simplified spelling Alcorn.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname writer jokingly grouped Alcorn with food-and-crop names like Bean, Grain, and Wheat in a list of “vegetable” surnames, even though the older evidence points to a place-based origin.
From the historical record
“Stephan Alcorn, ci (a^ Local, ' of Alchome,' a manor in the parish of RotherReld, co. Sussea, where [he family lived in the 14th century. Some of their descendants, still resident in that”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances