Cousins
A surname that usually began as a nickname or kinship term, later also appearing as an Anglicized Irish form in some families.
The #3,773 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,915 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In English, Cousins most likely comes from Middle English and Old French cousin, meaning “kinsman” or “relative.” It could begin as a nickname for someone known as a cousin or close relation, and some early sources also treat it as a term of address that later became hereditary. In Irish records, however, Cousins can also represent an Anglicized form of Gaelic surnames such as Mac Óisín or related forms, so the name does not have a single origin in every family.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in several spellings, and English examples are especially associated with southern and eastern counties. Some 19th-century surname scholars also noted Irish forms that were later written Cousins in English documents, so the surname has at least two historical streams. As a result, modern bearers of the name may descend from either English nickname-based lines or from Irish families whose original Gaelic surnames were reshaped in Anglicization.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers sometimes grouped Cousins with other relationship-based surnames like Uncle, Senior, and Younger, which shows how everyday kinship words could harden into family names.
From the historical record
“an imitative form of the old and popular Yorkshire Sissotson, ' the son of Cecilia ' <v. Sissot). Again, these are only examples. It would be easy to quote such names as Uncle, Cousin or Cousins, Neave, Senior, Younger, or Widowson (some- times). We must not include Kinsman. Terms of Endearment and Friendship. We…”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances