What is the origin of the last name Severson?

Question

My Grandmother's maiden name is that. I think this name is name is a Americanization of Sivertsen or Sivertson which is Scandinavian, Icelandic. I already know it's english or irish. Tell me what do you think, Help!!

Answer 1

the only way is to use records, which will tell you where Grandma's family comes from.  That is what I did.. looked at people with that name, in the 1900 census.  SOME come from Norway, or Sweden. Others have been in the US since the early 1800s, born in NY or elsewhere.

There is no reason for guessing, in genealogy.  All that is needed is to find grandma in the census, find her parents, and where they came from.  Certain persons will have their immigration records available from ancestry.com, which, if her parents are among those.. you can probably find the name of the TOWN where they were born.

What you are doing is the most common error that we have here.  What anyone "thinks" about where names come from, is confusing name origins with ancestry origins. If a person with a certain name has parents from Ireland, then the person is Irish.  Someone else can have exactly the same name, but their parents were born in Germany.  Or Denmark.  

If you want to post grandma's name (if she is not living), or the names of her parents.. then someone with ancestry can look it up for you and get the real answer.

Answer 2

Severson is not a name with an origin in England or Ireland, that is not to say that someone of that name was not born in England or Ireland, it does mean that someone in their ancestry most likely came from Scandinavia or, just possibly, Germany.

Severson  

Last name origin & meaning:

Probably an Americanized form of Scandinavian Sivertsen or Sivertson or of German Sievertsen, patronymic of Sievert.

Edit: I have just made a search for any Severson's in Britain today, excluding the Irish Republic, and I have found just one entry, so I think it is fairly conclusively not an "English" name,  I also searched for Seversen as a variant and there are none at all. I would also bet that there are none in the Irish Republic either.

Answer 3

Certainly Scandinavian, corruption of Silversen.

Answer 4

sounds swedish.