English chemist honored for his research on pollutants in car exhausts (born in 1921)
"Professor Wilkinson received a prestigious award after publishing groundbreaking studies on reducing toxic pollutants in car exhausts."
An English patronymic surname, from given names.
"The Wilkinson family has lived in that village for generations, tracing their name back to an ancestor named Wilk who was nicknamed after the local river."
Wilkinson is a surname formed by combining the given name Wilkin with the patronymic suffix -son to mean "son of Wilkin." The word entered English usage as a standard family name rather than evolving from an earlier meaning.