A male name. Hebrew 'like the sun’, rendered in Greek as Σαμπσών, the name of the great champion of the Israelites against the Philistines. Samson was the name of a Welsh bishop (fl. 550) who crossed over to Brittany and founded the abbey of Dol, where he was buried and later venerated as a saint. It is impossible to say whether he was named after the Biblical Samson, or whether his name was of Celtic origin, but there is no doubt that the prevalence of the name in Brittany and Normandy, whence it was carried to England, was due to his fame. The name was common in England from the end of the 11th C, spelt sometimes Samson or Sampson, sometimes Sanson or Sansum (from French Sanson). An early example is Samson, Bishop of Worcester, brother of Thomas, first Norman Archbishop of York. The surnames Sams, Samms, Samson, Sampson, Sansom, Sansome, Sanson, Sansum testify to its popularity. In the 17th C the name was reinforced by Biblical influence, but it died out after the Restoration.

Sampson Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum 1074-85. Sanson D 1086. Samson Curia Regis Rolls 1196-1215 Hundred Rolls 1273, Feudal Aids 1431. Sampson, Sanson, Saunsum Testa de Neville, or Book of Fees, temp. Hen. III-Edw. I 13th C. Sampson Feudal Aids 1302, 1346. Sansum Hundred Rolls 1273.

SAMSON. Hebrew, ‘splendid sun,’ which fits very closely with the Biblical Samson. There were, in C6, two future saints—a priest at Constantinople and a monk of Caldey (in Wales); in the same century lived, also at Constantinople, a Samson Xenodochius, who, founding an important hospital for the sick poor, himself was welcomed into the asylum of saints.

From Σαμψων, the Greek form of the Scripture name, in Hebrew שמשון, Shimshon, which Simonis translates ‘sol eximius,’ i. e. illustrious sun; the Rev. A. Jones ‘splendid sun,’ i. e. great joy and felicity; Tregelles, ‘solar, like the sun;’ and Fuerstius, ‘sonnenahnlicher’— that is, one who resembles the sun (from shénesh, the sun).