Scottish, English, Welsh, French, German, Dutch, Hungarian (Sámson), and Jewish: from the Biblical name Samson (Hebrew Shimshon, a diminutive of shemesh ‘sun’). Among Christians it was sometimes chosen as a personal name or nickname with reference to the great strength of the Biblical hero (Judges 13–16). In Wales another association was with the 6th-century Welsh bishop Samson, who traveled to Brittany, where he died and was greatly venerated. His name, which is probably an altered form of an unknown Celtic original, was popularized in England by Breton followers of William the Conqueror, and to some extent independently from Wales.
FOREBEARS The first Canadian bearer of this name was from Normandy, France, and is documented in Quebec City in 1664; he was said to have been 100 years old when he died in 1724.
