Johnson

Son of John, the most-Anglo-Saxon-sounding Norman name in the English census.

Origin: London, England
Famous bearer: Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), lexicographer, Dictionary of the English Language
Register: English family

Territory of Johnson

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Johnson

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Johnson community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Johnson has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Johnson clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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What does the Johnson name mean?

The history of Johnson

Johnson is among the half-dozen commonest surnames in modern England and the United States, a distribution that follows directly from the dominance of John as a mediaeval Christian first name. The surname fixed across the southern shires and the East Midlands in the 14th–15th centuries and travelled with English settlement everywhere afterwards, into the Plantation of Ulster, the New England colonies, and the 19th-century industrial cities of the north.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), the Lichfield, Staffordshire-born lexicographer, compiled A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the most consequential single dictionary in English-language history before the Oxford English Dictionary; his biographer James Boswell created the modern biographical genre with the Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), 36th President of the United States, oversaw the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Rights Act (1965) and Medicare. Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) was the 17th President. Boris Johnson (b. 1964) was the British Prime Minister 2019–2022.

Champions of the Johnson name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Samuel Johnson
The Lichfield bookseller's son whose Dictionary of the English Language (1755) defined the modern English vocabulary, whose Lives of the Poets (1779 to 1781) founded English-language literary biography, and whose nine-year conversation with James Boswell produced the greatest biography in the English language.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Johnson name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk London in 1818Enter →

St Paul's, Covent Garden and the gaslit West End — Regency London, soot-hazed and horse-drawn.

Notable bearers of the Johnson name

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), lexicographer, Dictionary of the English Language
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), 36th President of the United States
Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), 17th President of the United States
Boris Johnson (b. 1964), British Prime Minister 2019–2022

Stories of Johnson

Samuel Johnson and the Dictionary
1755
On the fifteenth of April 1755, in the print-shop of the Strand publisher William Strahan, the two-volume folio A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson, A.M. was published. The Dictionary, about forty-three thousand entries with approximately one hundred and fourteen thousand illustrative quotations from English literature, had been the nine-year solo lexicographical work of Samuel Johnson, then forty-five years old, the Lichfield-born grub-Street writer of London (1738), the Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), the Life of Mr Richard Savage (1744), and the twice-weekly Rambler essays (1750–52). The Dictionary was the first English-language dictionary to apply to English the scholarly philological method that the Académie Française had applied to French in its 1694 Dictionnaire. Johnson worked at his Gough Square house at the rate of about a column-and-a-half a day with six amanuenses; the project ran nine years against the Académie Française's eight teams of forty-academicians-each working for forty years to produce the equivalent French work. The publication-eve correspondence between Johnson and the belated patron Lord Chesterfield (who had snubbed Johnson at the 1747 outset of the project and had attempted to claim patronage in the 1755 publication month) became the foundational document of the modern English-literary independence from aristocratic patronage. The Johnson Dictionary remained the standard English-language dictionary until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928.
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Frequently asked

What does the surname Johnson mean?

Patronymic, son of John (Norman-Latin Johannes, naturalised as English John). The base name John was the most popular boys' name in mediaeval England from the Conquest onwards, so the patronymic Johnson took root anywhere John was a common first name in the 14th–15th-century surname-fixation era. Johnson is in the top-10 surnames of every English-speaking country except Wales, where the patronymic 's' goes to Jones instead. Johnson is among the half-dozen commonest surnames in modern England and the United States, a distribution that follows directly from the dominance of John as a mediaeval Christian first name.

Where does the Johnson family come from?

The Johnson family is rooted in London and Yorkshire & the Humber, in England. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in London and South Yorkshire. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Johnson family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Johnson name has been concentrated in West Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Johnson a England surname?

Yes, Johnson is a England surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is England, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Johnson surname?

Johnson is among the half-dozen commonest surnames in modern England and the United States, a distribution that follows directly from the dominance of John as a mediaeval Christian first name. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Johnson name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Johnson family known for?

Son of John, the most-Anglo-Saxon-sounding Norman name in the English census. Johnson is among the half-dozen commonest surnames in modern England and the United States, a distribution that follows directly from the dominance of John as a mediaeval Christian first name.

Who is the most famous Johnson?

The best-known bearer of the Johnson name is Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), lexicographer, Dictionary of the English Language. Other prominent figures of the family include Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), 36th President of the United States, Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), 17th President of the United States and Boris Johnson (b. 1964), British Prime Minister 2019–2022.

Who are some famous Johnsons?

Notable bearers of the Johnson name include Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), lexicographer, Dictionary of the English Language, Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), 36th President of the United States, Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), 17th President of the United States and Boris Johnson (b. 1964), British Prime Minister 2019–2022. Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Johnson family?

The Johnson family is associated with Samuel Johnson and the Dictionary. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Samuel Johnson and the Dictionary?

On the fifteenth of April 1755, in the print-shop of the Strand publisher William Strahan, the two-volume folio A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson, A. M. The event is dated to 1755.

Where is the Johnson surname found today?

England is the primary historical home of the Johnson surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same England origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Johnson family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Johnson family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of England so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Johnson family today?

The seat for the head of the Johnson family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.