Colon
A surname with several possible roots, including a short form of Nicolas/Colin in French usage and a later American association with Columbus.
The #497 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 4,585 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Colon is not a single, settled derivation. In French sources, it is sometimes treated as a shortened form of Nicolas, through the familiar name Colin; other writers connect it with the common noun for a tenant farmer or colonist. In English-American material, it was also explained as a reference to Columbus, though that looks more like a later folk interpretation or nickname-based formation than the original surname source.
History
The name appears in French and francophone surname lists, and it also turns up in Anglo-American reference books as a family name in New York. Because the word colon is so common in several European languages, different families may have arrived at the same spelling through different routes. In some cases the modern surname may have been influenced by the prestige or popularity of Columbus/Colón rather than by a single medieval line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century American source glossed Colon as Columbus, showing how quickly surnames can attract folk etymologies.
From the historical record
“Cok- Caniifer, 1379 : P. T. Yotkt p, 98. These have become nodemly ^ox, Coxe, Colon, and Coxen (cf. Wiicoiton for Wilcoctson, Dix nd Dixon for Dicks and Dickson, iix and Rixon for Ricks and Rickson, also coi-comb). One or nstances will suffice :”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances