This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of George.' A somewhat rare name in early mediaeval records. Quite modern in popularity, in spite of the many Georges in the London Directory. The fuller patronymic Georgeson has always been excessively rare. St. George of England ought to have impressed his name more deeply upon our directories.

Georgius de Furnell, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Robert Gorge, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

William Gorge, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Jeorgius Clericus, Lincolnshire, ibid.

Georgius Williamson, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1563. Buried — Georgeson (sic) servant to Mr. William Hall: St. Michael, Cornhill.

1604. James Georgeson, of Speke: Wills at Chester.

1623. Married — Samuell Wilkinson and Anne George: St. Peter, Cornhill.

1624. William Mason and Dorothy Georgeson: Marriage Lic. (London).

Weekley says (p. 209) this "is a very rare medieval font name," but "is so common a surname in its unaltered form" that he thinks it must have been derived through the mediaeval popular drama. It was a not uncommon surname in Prestwick in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Archibald George appears as burgess and councillor of Irvine, 1597—1601 (Inquis. Tut., 1275; Irvine, I, p. 96).

A country fair called Georgemas Market was formerly held near St. George's Day, April 23, on Sordel Hill Caithness. Later changed to a monthly tryst while still retaining the name of Georgemas. Sordel Hill came in time to be known as Georgemas Hill, and in 1874 a railway station was erected about a mile or two away, to which the railway company gave the name of Georgemas Junction.

(Anglo-Latin-Greek) Land-Worker,Hus­bandman [Latin Georgius, Greek Τεωργός—γή, earth, land; έργω, to work]

“Farmer” in Latin. (Georgios - Hence Virgil’s “Georgies” accounts of rural life.) See also Gie.

“Farmer” in Greek (Georgios).

(Welsh, French) Descendant of George (farmer); dweller at the sign of St. George.

The personal name. Unlike most names of its class, it seems not to have given rise to any diminutive or derivative.

A husbandman.

(Greek.) A husbandman, a farmer, from Γεωργδς.

From St. George. Richard and William de St. Georgio of Normandy 1198, Ivo, Robert, William, Ralph de S. G. 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). Alan de St. Georgio of England 1189 (Rot. Pip.). Several families of the name appear by the arms to be of the house of Gorges.

George. —A name at present most numerous in Monmouthshire, and after that in South Wales. Bare in the south coast counties, excepting Cornwall, and in the north of England, north of the Wash and the Dee.