Sisson
Usually a surname from the nickname Siss, itself a pet form of Cecilia or Cicely, though one older source also suggests a link to the Gloucestershire place-name Siston.
The #3,177 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,131 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest explanation in the older surname books is that Sisson means “Siss’s son,” with Siss being a pet form of female names such as Cecilia or Cicely. Those names ultimately go back through Latin to Cecilia, traditionally connected with the Roman family name Caecilius. A minority nineteenth-century view instead connected the surname with the place-name Siston in Gloucestershire, but that is less consistently supported in the excerpts.
History
The name is recorded in Yorkshire in the Poll Tax of 1379 in forms such as Sisson, Cisson, and Cysson, which fits its early use in northern England. The surname later spread more widely in England and then to English-speaking countries overseas. Related forms in the same surname group include Siss, Sissot, Sisselson, and Sisserson.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old surname dictionaries explicitly note that Sisson belongs to a cluster of Yorkshire forms built from the pet name Siss, showing how a feminine nickname could generate a hereditary surname.
From the historical record
“SISON 1 (A.-rr.-Lat.) 1 Siss's or Ciss's Son: SISSON J Ciss, a dim. of Cicdy or Cecilia [Lat. Ceecilia, fem. of Cacilius; app.f.Lat. ctscus, blind] 2 a double dim. of Cicely or Cecilia [Fr. dim. suff. -on'] In theYorks PoU-Tax, a.d. 1379, we find the variant surnominal forms Sisson, Cisson, and Cysson,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)