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The peterson Surname

peterson Name Meaning and History

  1. English, Scottish, and German: patronymic from Peter.
  2. Americanized form of similar surnames of non-English origin (such as Petersen, or Swedish Pettersson).
  3. In VT, there are Petersons who were originally called by the French name Beausoleil; in some documentation this was translated fairly literally as Prettysun, which was then assimilated to Peterson.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The peterson name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the peterson family name as far back in history as possible.

peterson Family Facts

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Distribution of peterson Families in the US in 1920
Number of peterson families
 4011-8020
 1338-4010		 1-1337
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
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