ANDERSON

My main family line is Anderson, this makes searching for information a whole lot of fun:)

Do you know how common the last name Anderson is?

According to the 2000 Census data the Surname Anderson is the 12th most common last name with over 762,000 people having the Anderson surname. While this isn't as bad as having the surname Smith which is the most common surname according to the same census data with over 2 million people. (I even have some Smiths in my family tree).

What does Anderson mean? 

This is the information I found on Ancestry's What's in the name? search:

Anderson Name Meaning

Scottish and northern English: very common patronymic from the personal name Ander(s), a northern Middle English form of Andrew. See also Andreas. The frequency of the surname in Scotland is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so the personal name has long enjoyed great popularity there. Legend has it that the saint’s relics were taken to Scotland in the 4th century by a certain St. Regulus. The surname was brought independently to North America by many different bearers and was particularly common among 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers in PA and VA. In the United States, it has absorbed many cognate or like-sounding names in other European languages, notably Swedish Andersson, Norwegian and Danish Andersen, but also Ukrainian Andreychyn, Hungarian Andrásfi, etc.

Pasted from <http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=anderson>

 I have to say, I think my great-great grandparents tried to populate the western states all on there own, with 16 children of which 15 lived to marry and have children of their own. Now to find them all.

Danica