Family Name Origion?

Question

Hi My Last Name Is Anderson And I Was Wondering where my name comes from. I'm pretty sure it is of swedish origin but i want to know where and what someone named Anderson would do in Sweden. I really wanna know if i was a viking and my andsestors beat people up. THANKS

Answer 1

http://www.last-names.net/surname.asp

heres something bout your last name

Answer 2

Anderson is both Swedish and Norwegian (although I think that in one of those countries it's spelled AndersEn), and Scottish as well, probably thanks to the Viking invasions of Scotland, although it may also derive from men named for the country's patron saint, St. Andrew..  Since it's a patronymic, not a trade name or a place name, someone of that name could have lived anywhere and done anything, but originally he would have been the son of someone named Andrew or the Swedish or Norwegian version of that name.   In fact, until fairly recent times, any Norwegian (at least) whose family did not own land from which to take a last name simply took his father's given name as a last name, adding "son" to it.  Members of landowning families used the patronymic as a middle name, much as Russians in general still do (e. g. Nikita Sergeivich Khrushchev--son of Sergei K.)  The economist Torstein Veblen was Torstein ANDERSON Veblen, Ander (I suppose)being his father's name.  This practice has evidently ended in Scandinavia but is still followed in Iceland.

Answer 3

The Anderson surname is of English and Scottish origin, and is a patronymic of the surname Andrew, which is derived from the personal name from the Greek "Andreas", a derivative of "andreios", manly, from "aner", man, male. This was the name of the first of Jesus Christ's disciples, and it is also the name of the patron saint of both Scotland and Russia. The personal name was first recorded as "Andreas" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and the surname was first recorded in Scotland with one John Andree, who was present at the perambulation of the boundaries of Kyrknes and Louchor in 1395.

The modern surname can be found as Andrew(e)s, Andress, Andriss, Anderson, Enderson, McAndrew and Kendrew. One William Anderson was an early settler in America, setting sail from London on the "Alexander" bound for the Barbadoes in May 1635. Among the recordings in London is the christening of Neal, son of Erasmus and Mary Anderson, on March 19th 1698, at St. Katherine by the Tower. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Rogerus Andreweson, which was dated 1272, in the "Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling

Answer 4

Anderson means son of Andrew, or Anders, and and Anderson could and would do pretty much anything they wanted, and probably be from anywhere.  It's probably viking.  You should check with your own elders, and find out what you can from them, then go to a geneology site and find out more.  Maybe make a stop at the place where your ancestors entered the country (like Ellis Island).