Salmon Family History

English and French: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Salmon Saumon a shortened form of Salomon (see Solomon). The Normans introduced it to England and it was current as a personal name there until at least the end of the 14th century. The derived surname is found throughout 13th- and 14th-century England mostly in the spellings Saleman and Salman, which eventually became regularized as Salmon. See also 2 below compare Salman.

English: occasionally perhaps a nickname for someone ‘as wise as Solomon’. In Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale, it is stated: ‘And whan we been togidres euerichoon Euery man semeth a Salomon’. King Solomon was famed for his wisdom.

English: nickname from Anglo-Norman French Middle English salmon saumo(u)n saumun samoun ‘salmon’ no doubt given to someone who caught, sold, or ate the fish.

Irish: part translation of Gaelic Ó Bradáin ‘descendant of Bradán’, a personal name probably derived from bradach ‘spirited’, but written the same as an Irish word meaning ‘salmon’; the name is also sometimes translated Fisher.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish male personal name Zalmen, derived via a German form from Hebrew Shelomo (see Solomon). Compare Salman.