Morgan
A classic Welsh surname, originally a personal name often linked to ideas of the sea or brightness.
The #69 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 1,078 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Morgan began as an old Welsh personal name, later adopted as a hereditary surname. Harrison glosses it from Welsh elements meaning roughly "sea" and "bright/white," giving the sense of "bright sea" or "sea-born," though older scholarship is not fully consistent on the exact breakdown. In practice, the name was first used as a given name and then passed on as a family name.
History
Morgan is one of the most common Welsh surnames, and Lower notes its high frequency in Wales alongside other patronymics such as Jones, Williams, and Evans. Because Welsh naming customs long favored the father's baptismal name as the child's surname, Morgan could be inherited directly from an ancestor called Morgan. The name also appears early in medieval Welsh records, showing that it was established well before modern surname usage.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old Welsh naming system could change a child's surname each generation, so a Morgan family might later become Jones or Williams a generation or two down the line.
From the historical record
“MORFITT MORPHETT MORGAN (Celt.) i Bright or White Sea [Wei. Morgan — mdr, sea -|- can, white, bright ; with c mutated to^] Ac y bu varw Morgan. — [And Morgan died] Bruty Tywysogion, A.D. 972. Morgan Cam [Crooked]. — Ann. Camb., A.D. 1246.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)