Gibbons
Usually an English and Irish surname meaning “son of Gilbert,” with Gibb as the short form behind it.
The #1,183 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,352 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Gibbons is generally explained as a patronymic from the medieval personal name Gilbert, often through the pet form Gibb plus the English genitive ending -s. In that sense, it literally means “descendant of” or “son of Gilbert.” Some Irish families later adopted or were assigned the surname in English records, so the name also became well established in Ireland.
History
English records show Gibbons as a long-standing surname of medieval origin, closely related to Gibb, Gibbon, Gibbins, and Gibson. In Ireland, the name appears among Anglo-Norman and later Irish families and is treated by some historical sources as one of several surnames that became naturalized there. The surname is also found in variant forms such as Fitzgibbon and Gibbonson in older records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Several 19th-century surname dictionaries group Gibbons with a whole family of Gilbert-derived names, showing how one medieval nickname generated many different spellings.
From the historical record
“Bapt. ' the son ofGilbert ' ; v. Gib- bon. With the genitive s in gibbons, cC Williams, Gibbons, Jones, Watkins, &c. LoAdoi^ 4, o ; Philadelphia, 4, 6- FttBhurla.- Bapt. 'the son of”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances