Where the Johnson name comes from

Johnson is son of John, and John is Hebrew: Yohanan, meaning God has been gracious. It reached English through the Greek Ioannis and the Latin Johannes, and it owes its extraordinary spread to two saints, John the Baptist and the apostle John.

In the United States the surname also swallowed a great many families who arrived as Johansson, Johnsson, Johansen or Jonsson and left the paperwork as Johnson. Jonathan, despite the look of it, is no relation at all: that comes from a different Hebrew name meaning given by God.