Anderson Family History

Scottish and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Ander(s), a northern Middle English form of Andrew , + son ‘son’. The frequency of the surname in Scotland is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so the personal name has long enjoyed great popularity there. Legend has it that the saint's relics were taken to Scotland in the 4th century by a certain Saint Regulus. In North America, this surname has absorbed many cognate or like-sounding surnames in other languages, notably Scandinavian (see 3 and 4 below), but also Ukrainian Andreychenko etc.

German: patronymic from the personal name Anders , hence a cognate of 1 above.

Americanized form (and a less common Swedish variant) of Swedish Andersson , a cognate of 1 above.

Americanized form of Norwegian, Danish, and North German Andersen or Anderssen, cognates of 1 above.

History: The surname Anderson (see 1) was particularly common among 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers in PA and VA.