Henson
Usually a shortened form of Henderson or Hen(e)yson, meaning “son of Henry” or “son of Henn/Heyn,” though some lines may reflect older local spellings.
The #728 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,430 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Henson is generally explained as a patronymic, built from the personal name Henn, Heyn, or Henry with the suffix -son, meaning “son of.” Older scholarship records it both as a form of “the son of Heyn” and as a shortened or contracted form related to Henry-based surnames. The name Henry itself goes back through Old French to a Germanic compound meaning roughly “home ruler.”
History
Medieval records show Henson in English parish and tax material by the 14th century. Some 19th-century writers treated it as an abbreviation of Henryson, while others preferred a direct derivation from the pet-name Heyn or Henn; in practice, both influences may have existed in different places. The surname has remained most common in England and later spread widely in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries explicitly argued that Henson was not simply a misspelling of Henderson or Henryson, showing that even historical name scholars disagreed about its exact source.
From the historical record
“henchnum. Jamieson. HENSON. See Henry. HENTON. a distn(!t near Chinnor, CO. Oxon. KENWOOD. \. A tithing in the parish of Cumnor, co. Berks. 2. Perhaps another form of Honywood. See that name. HENZEY. See under Tyttery. HEPBURN. From the lands of Heb-”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom