A patronymic surname, from Middle English meaning "son of Atkin", a Middle English diminutive of Adam.
"Many residents in the northern village share the surname Atkinson as a traditional patronymic indicating their descent from an ancestor named Atkin."
Atkinson is a surname formed by adding the suffix "-son," meaning "son of," to the given name Atkin or Atkins. This construction follows the common English pattern for creating family names that identify an individual as the offspring of their father.