Find out how popular the last name Dickson is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Dickson.

Dickson, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Dickson surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Dickson in America

Dickson is the 986th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Dickson surname appeared 35,312 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 12 people would have the surname Dickson.

We can also compare 2010 data for Dickson to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Dickson

The Dickson surname originates from Scotland and is derived from the Old English words "Dic" meaning "a ditch or dike" and "tun" meaning "a town or village". It likely referred to someone who lived by a ditch or near a dyke.

The earliest recorded spelling of the name is thought to be Diccsun in the mid-12th century. It is found in various old Scottish records from the late 12th century onwards, with spellings like Dicson, Dikesone, and Dykson.

One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is John Dyksone, who is mentioned in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland in 1488. Another early bearer was Thomas Dickson, a Scottish merchant who lived in Danzig (modern-day Gdansk, Poland) in the late 16th century.

The surname is also linked to several place names in Scotland, such as Dickson's Inch in Roxburghshire and Dickson's Town in Lanarkshire, which may have been named after early Dickson families who settled in those areas.

Some notable historical figures with the Dickson surname include:

1. Adam Dickson (1554-1639), a Scottish Presbyterian minister and author.
2. James Dickson (1738-1822), a Scottish botanist and co-founder of the Linnean Society of London.
3. Sir Alexander Dickson (1836-1887), a Scottish naval officer and explorer who served in the Royal Navy.
4. Cyril Dickson (1856-1926), a British Anglican bishop who served as the Bishop of Salisbury from 1915 to 1926.
5. Walter Dickson (1874-1957), a Scottish-American jurist who served as a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

While the Dickson surname has its roots in Scotland, it has since spread to many other parts of the world, particularly through Scottish emigration and exploration.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Dickson

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Dickson.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Dickson was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Dickson has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Dickson was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Dickson, please contact us.

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