ARTHUR ANDERSON

Of Celtic origin. King Arthur was a British king of the 5th or 6th century, about whom virtually no historical facts are known. He ruled in Britain after the collapse of the Roman Empire and before the coming of the Germanic tribes, and a vast body of legends grew up around him in the literatures of medieval Western Europe. His name is first found in the Latinized form Artorius; it is of obscure etymology. The spelling with -th- was popular among the gentry families of West Yorkshire in the late 1400s, even before Henry VII, who may have hoped to capitalize on the legend, gave the name to his son. It remained in regular use in some areas and its popularity exploded in the early 19th century, largely as a result of the fame of Arthur Wellesley (1769–1852), Duke of Wellington, the victor at the Battle of Waterloo and subsequently prime minister. Further influences were Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859–85), and the widespread Victorian interest, especially among the Pre-Raphaelites, in things medieval in general and in Arthurian legend in particular.

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 likesounding names in other European languages, notably Swedish Andersson, Norwegian and Danish Andersen, but also Ukrainian Andreychyn, Hungarian Andrásfi, etc.