Sumsion

Main GB Location (1881): Somerset, Wilts, and. (i) relationship name; from the evidence of the 1381 example below, perhaps from an unrecorded Middle English personal name *Somme or *Summe, of uncertain origin, + son. The development of Sumson to forms spelled with -sion, -tion, and -shon is the result of palatalization of /s/, similar to that in Gration for Grayson and Motion for Mowson . (ii) nickname perhaps from Middle English sumpcion, somsion, a shortened form of assumpcioun ‘assumption’, denoting the Feast of the Assumption (15 August), for someone born on or around that date. However, no medieval evidence has been found to support this derivation. Further information: From around 1600, in some northern and south-western dialects, including that of Wilts, /u/ was often unrounded to /ɪ/ before a nasal consonant. Compare northern Simister for Sumpster and Simmerson for Summerson . In Wilts Sums(i)on becomes Simps(i)on and is indistinguishable from Simpson (‘son of Sim or Simon’). The variation is explicit in Thomas Sympson or Sumption, 1755, and Anne Sympson or Sumption, 1757 in IGI (Castle Combe, Wilts), and is implied somewhat earlier in sequences like Alice Sumsion, 1600, Thomas Sympsion, 1669, Mary Simson, 1661 in IGI (Box, Wilts); John Sumption, 1612, Isaac Sympson, 1679 in IGI (Lacock, Wilts); and Mary Sumson, 1734, Thos Simpson, 1751 in IGI (Wellington, Shrops). It is also possible that Sumsion was confused with Sam(p)s(i)on: compare Rychard Samson, 1567, Richard Sampson, 1727 in IGI (Lacock, Wilts), Richard Sampsion, 1761 in IGI (Colerne, Wilts), James Sampson, 1868 in IGI (Arlecdon, Cumb), and William Sampson, 1865 in IGI (Wellington, Shrops). See Sampson , but it is most unlikely that Sumsion would derive from Sam(p)son, since it would involve an otherwise unrecorded sound change.