Parent’s name
Thomas surname meaning
From the given name Thomas (Aramaic “twin”) used as a hereditary surname — effectively “of Thomas’s line.”
The short story
Thomas is the given name Thomas frozen into a family name. The personal name comes from Aramaic for "twin," made famous by the apostle, and in English it often becomes a surname without an extra -son ending—so one short gloss is simply "of Thomas’s people."
It is a parent's-name surname, not a craft or a hillside. Welsh and Cornish concentrations are well known, and US Census Thomas also absorbs related forms from other languages. Cousins with an explicit "son" marker show up as Thompson or Thomson instead.
Also seen as: Tomás, Thomson, Thomason
Sources used
- Ancestry/DAFN 2022: Thomas from Biblical personal name Thomas (Aramaic t’ōm’a ‘twin’)
- Wikipedia 'Thomas (surname)' (patronymic / personal-name surname from Thomas)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)