Salmons
Usually a patronymic surname meaning “son of Salmon,” with Salmon itself often coming from the biblical name Solomon.
The #9,736 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,744 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Salmons is generally understood as a patronymic form of Salmon, with the final -s meaning “son of” or “belonging to.” In English surname tradition, Salmon is often traced to the personal name Solomon, ultimately from Hebrew Shlomo, meaning “peace.” Some older writers also noted that a minority of families may have taken the name from another source, such as an occupational or locative Saleman/Salmon form, but the common explanation is the personal-name derivation.
History
Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century surname writers treated Salmons as part of a larger English group of Salomon/Salmon-type names, and Harrison explicitly glossed it as “Salmon’s (Son).” Bardsley likewise grouped Salmons with other English surnames derived from Salmon/Saloman forms, while noting that some bearers of these names were Jewish. The name is established in England and later appears in the United States through ordinary migration and surname transmission.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes treated Salmons and related forms as one big family of English names, even when the spellings vary a lot from place to place.
From the historical record
“SALMOND for Salmon, q.v. SALMONS, Salmon's (Son) : v. Salmon. SALOMON 1 _1 e„i„„„„ „ V SALOMAN j - Solomon, q.v. . . . and }>es ys mftra )jonne Salomon. — Matth. Xn. 43 (A.-Sax. vers.). . . 1 s6nu [behold] hier m6ra thanne Salomon. — do. do. (O.H.Ger. vers.) Salomdn the kuning [king]. —”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)