Chris wrote: > ... > My DAVIDSONs of Cruden, Abd, I presume, would descend from those > around that area before the end of the 14th century, while others have > spread to other areas. ... or may have arisen quite independently in these other areas? DAVIDSON is a classic instance of a "petrified patronymic", and, given that David was a popular name, it seems more than likely that, when surnames became fashionable, more than one "son of David" decided to take his father's forename as his surname. Gavin Bell