WP White Pages Hull

Johnson Surname: Meaning, Origin & Hull Research

Updated 14 Nov 2026

Johnson is a patronymic surname meaning "son of John", and John is among the most common given names in medieval England. That makes Johnson common too, and unusually hard to pin to any one family. We found no well-documented Johnson family in Hull, but the Hull History Centre does hold the records of one Hull firm, W&H Johnson Ltd, which is a useful lead for anyone researching the name locally.

What does Johnson mean?

Johnson is formed from the given name John plus son. John comes from a Hebrew name, Yochanan, usually translated as "God is gracious" (britishsurnames.uk). Charles Bardsley's Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1901) classes Johns, Johnson and Johnes as patronymics, "the son of John", and says the name was originally pronounced and spelt Jone, which is why it links to Jones (quoted on britishsurnames.uk). Wikipedia describes Johnson as a patronymic of Anglo-Norman origin, meaning "son of John" (Wikipedia). We have not been able to read the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland or Reaney and Wilson, so we cite neither.

Origin and early records

Bardsley cites the Yorkshire poll tax return of 1379, which contains several forms of the name that have not yet settled into Johnson:

  • Willelmus Johnson and Robertus Jonson;
  • Willelmus Joneson and Ricardus Joneson;
  • Robertus Johanson and Juliana Jonesson.

That shows the name in use in Yorkshire in the fourteenth century in several spellings, with Jon- and Joh- forms side by side. Bardsley also records a Lewis Johns in 1486, who was a prebendary of St David's in Wales. Mark Lower's 1860 Patronymica Britannica notes that a Lincolnshire family of Johnson claimed descent from a Norman house; this is a family claim, not an established origin of the surname, and we do not rely on it.

Spelling variants and related names

  • Jonson, Joneson and Jonesson: forms in the 1379 return, written by clerks who spelled by ear.
  • Johns and Jones: Bardsley treats Johns and Johnes as relatives of Johnson, and sends the reader to Jones. Not every Jones or Johns is a Johnson, but they share the given name John.

How common is Johnson?

britishsurnames.uk ranks Johnson 10th in Britain, with about 205,000 bearers (the page does not give the year of its data). Wikipedia says it is the second most common surname in the United States, citing the 1990 US census name files.

In Yorkshire, the 1881 census list on britishsurnames.uk puts Johnson 12th, with 13,600 entries, below Thompson (15,828) and Harrison (13,770). That is a transcription, so counts are approximate. We found no reliable ranking for Hull alone, so we do not give one.

Johnson in Hull and East Yorkshire

The Hull History Centre holds the records of W&H Johnson Ltd, a paint manufacturer at 202 High Street, Hull, dated 1891 to 1968 (reference C DBJ, 16 boxes at Hull City Archives). The catalogue entry we read gives the firm's name, address and dates, but no company history, so we cannot say who founded it or whether the Johnsons concerned were related to other families of the name. It is an example of the sort of local record that can anchor a Johnson family to a trade in Hull.

Beyond that, we did not find a documented Johnson family, ship or place in Hull that we could verify, and we will not invent one.

Researching your Johnson family in Hull

  • Start with certificates and family knowledge. With a name this common, use first names, ages, occupations and addresses to separate households, and be wary of online trees that merge different Johnsons.
  • The Hull History Centre has guides to Census Records, Wills, Trade Directories, Apprenticeship Records and Newspaper holdings.
  • If a Johnson worked on the Hull fishing fleet, see the Centre's guides to Fishing Crew Lists and Skipper cards, and our piece on Hull's maritime and fishing heritage.
  • Search the Hull History Centre catalogue for business records such as C DBJ, which is open to accredited readers.
  • The East Yorkshire Family History Society runs help desks in Hull and the East Riding.

More surname pages are in our names section.

Sources

  1. britishsurnames.uk, "Johnson", britishsurnames.uk/surname/johnson (accessed 6 November 2026).
  2. britishsurnames.uk, "Johnson: as described in historical dictionaries", quoting C. W. Bardsley (1901) and M. A. Lower (1860), britishsurnames.uk/surname/johnson/historic (accessed 6 November 2026).
  3. Wikipedia, "Johnson (surname)", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_(surname) (accessed 6 November 2026).
  4. britishsurnames.uk, "Top surnames from the 1881 census in Yorkshire", britishsurnames.uk/1881census/yorkshire (accessed 6 November 2026).
  5. Hull History Centre catalogue, "W&H Johnson Ltd, Paint Manufacturer of 202 High Street" (C DBJ), catalogue.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/catalogue/C-DBJ (accessed 6 November 2026).
  6. Hull History Centre, family history research guides, hullhistorycentre.org.uk (accessed 6 November 2026).
  7. East Yorkshire Family History Society, eyfhs.org.uk (accessed 6 November 2026).

Last checked 6 November 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.