This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Swain,' literally a young lad; compare Brownswain, Boatswain. Swainson is a well-known surname in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Alicia Swayneson, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Robertus Swaynne, 1379: ibid.

Thomas Swaynesson, 1379: ibid.

Sweyn de Canewyk, Lincolnshire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Adam Suani, Lincolnshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

William Svein, Suffolk, ibid.

(2) Occup. 'the swain,' i.e. the peasant, the servant.

John le Swein, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert le Swein, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Geoffrey le Sueyn, Norfolk, ibid.

1583. James Swaneson, of Ulverston: Lancashire Wills at Richmond.

From ME. Swein (

'son of Swan,' which see. The latter form occurs mostly in Caithness. Alanus filius Swani and Walterus filius Swani witnessed a charter of land of Tubermor, 1298 (Scon, p. 91).

(the) Swain’s Son: v. Swain.

Thomas Swaynesson.—Yorks Poll-Tax, A.D. 1379.

See under Swaine. The name of Sweynson has existed for ages in Denmark. In the XI. and XII. centuries we find it here in the forms of Filius Suani and Fitz-Swain. In Domesday the wife of Edw. filius Suani was a chief-tenant in Essex. The well-known ascendancy of the Danes in Yorkshire from the time of Ethelred, A.D. 868, downwards, accounts for that district being the principal habitat of the name. The Swaynsons were located at Briggeholme, in the parish of Giggleswick, early in the XII. century, and they remained in that, district until the middle of the XVIII. Early in the XII. century Adam Fitz-Swain or Swainson, was lord of Hornby Castle. "You have the advantage (says the Rev. Jos. Hunter, addressing one of the family,) of having had a line of ancestors living in a good position in the county where Sweyn, the son of Alaric, and Adam, the son of Sweyn, had such large possessions." Beatson's Polit. Index, i. 4. Inf. Rev. Edw. C. Swaynson, M.A., the existing representative of the family.

From the Swedish, Svenson; from the Danish, Svenssen; a personal name.

The ancient name of Swain, which is now best represented in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Devonshire, was established in the form of Sweyn, rarely of Swayn, during the 13th century in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Oxfordshire, being most numerous in the last two counties (H. R.). In the east of England it is probable that Swain is but the old Danish name of Sweyn. In the time of the English Harold, his elder brother bore the name of his maternal uncle, Sweyn, King of Denmark.