Where did the name Wilson come from? What is their coat of arms? When did the Wilson family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the history of the family name?

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Coat of Arms > Wilson Coat of Arms

Wilson Coat of Arms and Name History

Wilson

Origin Displayed: Irish

Origins Available: English, Irish, Scottish

This product is available in 11 X 17 parchment scroll format, but extracts from this history are not available at this time.

Read full text versions of sample histories.

Suggested Readings for the name Wilson
A Brief Account of the Wilsons by Emery Small Wilson, The DeMay Family and the Wilson Family by Ida DeMay Wilson, The Family of Samuel & Jean Love Wilson by Sara Stewart Hinckley.

Some noteworthy people of the name Wilson

Olin Chaddock Wilson (1909-1994), American astronomer, stellar spectroscopist. He won the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship in 1977 and the Bruce Medal in 1984
John Lyde Wilson (1784-1849), Democratic-Republican Governor of South Carolina from 1822 to 1824
President Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), the twenty-eighth President of the United States
James Harrison Wilson (1837-1925), Union Army general in the American Civil War, railroad executive, and author
Ellen Louise Axson Wilson (1860-1914), first wife of Woodrow Wilson, First Lady of the United States from 1913 until her death
Staci Wilson, American soccer player
Gahan Wilson (b. 1930), American cartoonist
Tom Wilson (b. 1931), American cartoonist
Edmund Wilson (1895-1972), American literary critic
Edmund Beecher Wilson (1856-1939), American zoologist
Edward Osborne Wilson (b. 1929), American biologist and two-time winner (1979 and 1991) of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
Ernest Henry Wilson (1876-1930), American botanist
Henry Wilson (1812-1873), American politician
James Wilson (1742-1789), American political ideologist
Kenneth Geddes Wilson (b. 1936), American theoretical physicist
Robert Wilson (b. 1941), American theatre-maker/director/designer
Robert Woodrow Wilson (b. 1936), winner of the American 1978 Nobel Prize in physics for detecting microwave noise in the constellation Cassiopeia that proved to be residual radiation from the Big Bang
Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson (1912-1986), American pianist/bandleader/arranger
Robert Woodrow Wilson (b. 1936), American astronomer awarded 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics
Technician Fifth Grade Alfred L. Wilson (1919-1944), who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1944
General Louis Hugh Wilson Jr. (1920-2005), who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1944 and was 26th Commandant of the Marine Corps
Private First Class Robert Lee Wilson (1920-1944), American Marine was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1944
August Wilson (1945-2005), American playwright twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1987 and 1990)
Lanford Wilson (b. 1937), American playwright awarded the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Ian Wilson (b. 1964), Irish composer
Sir Henry Hughes Wilson (1864-1922), Irish soldier
Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson (1842-1921), English Admiral and First Sea Lord
Charles McMoran Wilson (1882-1977), 1st Baron Moran, most famous for being Sir Winston Churchill's personal physician, saving his life in 1943
Colin Wilson (b. 1931), well-known British novelist
Sammy Wilson, Democratic Unionist Member of the British Parliament for East Antrim (b.2005)
Sir Angus Wilson (1913-1991), South African-born English novelist
Prime Minister James Harold Wilson (1916-1995), Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (1916-1995), British politician, Prime Minister (1964-1970, 1974-1976)
David Clive Wilson (b. 1935), Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, British administrator, last Governor of Hong Kong (1987-1992)
Sir Alan Geoffrey Wilson (b. 1939), British scientist and social scientist, knighted in 2001
Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1872-1961), second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869-1959), Scottish pioneer of atomic and nuclear physics who received the Nobel Prize in 1927
Sir Daniel Wilson (1816-1892), Scottish archaeologist
Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912), English physician
Sir Erasmus Wilson (1809-1884), English surgeon and antiquarian
Sir James Harold Wilson (b. 1916), English Labour politician
Harriette Wilson (1786-1855), English courtesan
Henry Maitland Wilson (1881-1964), English soldier
Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860), English Orientalist
James Wilson (1805-1860), Scottish economist
John Wilson (1785-1854), Scottish critic and essayist
John Wilson (1804-1875), Scottish missionary
John Dover Wilson (1881-1969), Shakespearean scholar
John MacKay Wilson (1804-1835), Scottish writer and editor
Richard Wilson (1714-1782), Welsh landscape painter
Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849), English soldier
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), Scottish/American ornithologist
Betty Wilson (b. 1943), British peace activist
Royston Warner Wilson (1900-1965), English strip cartoonist
Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), English churchman
Finn Wilson, Scottish musician
Captain Eric Charles Twelves Wilson (b. 1912), British soldier awarded the Victoria Cross during WWII

Clan Badge

Wilson, sept of the Clan Gunn

Is your family of Scottish descent? If so, you can proudly display the Gunn Clan Badge. This clan badge is used by all septs of that clan.

Tell Me More About Coat of Arms

View Armorial History with Coat of Arms Guided Tour
Bibliography - References used for our surname histories
View sample history for: Donovan, Gauthier, Kowalski, MacGregor, Perelli, Schmidt
Coats of Arms: History
Coats of Arms: the Heraldic Artist
Coats of Arms: Timeline
Coats of Arms: Elements
Family Crests and Genealogy: how they relate

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