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

Matson, 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 Matson surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Matson in America

Matson is the 2911th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Matson surname appeared 12,320 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Matson.

We can also compare 2010 data for Matson 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 Matson

The surname Matson originated in medieval England, derived from the Old English words "mat" meaning "meadow" and "sunu" meaning "son". It was a patronymic name given to the son of someone who lived near a meadow or grassy area.

The earliest known record of the name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is listed as "Matessone" in Yorkshire. This suggests that the name was already established in northern England by the late 11th century.

In the 13th century, the name is found spelled variously as "Mattessone", "Matyson", and "Mattyson" in various manorial records and tax rolls from counties like Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire. This indicates the name's prevalence across the northern and eastern regions of England.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir William Matson, a knight who fought alongside King Edward I in the Scottish Wars of Independence in the late 13th century. Another notable figure was John Matson, a wealthy merchant and alderman in the city of York, who lived from around 1380 to 1455.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name began to appear in various forms such as "Mattson", "Mattison", and "Mattinson" as it spread to other parts of Britain and eventually to the American colonies. One prominent bearer was Thomas Matson, a Puritan settler who arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 and later served as a representative in the colonial legislature.

In the 18th century, John Matson (1700-1772) was a notable English clergyman and author who served as the rector of St. Andrew's Church in Cambridge. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Benjamin Matson (1730-1814) was a Revolutionary War soldier from Pennsylvania who later became a prominent landowner and farmer.

As the name spread across the English-speaking world, it continued to be associated with various professions and fields. For example, in the 19th century, Hartvig Matson (1810-1875) was a Norwegian-American pioneer and businessman who founded the town of Matson, Wisconsin, while Nathaniel Matson (1842-1916) was an influential American journalist and publisher based in New York City.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Matson

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

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 Matson 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 Matson 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 Matson was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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