"The name Butson is extremely rare. In England, it historically occurs mostly in Somerset, then Devon, and then Cornwall . Only two Butson families are known in Canada, two in the United States, and one in Australia and New Zealand, for example. The nearest to a derivation found thus far is in John Geipel's "The Viking Legacy." He cites (169) the Domesday Book, the 1086 list of his subjects by the Norman King William, which lists BATSEUN (from the Norse batsveinn=boatswain). Geipel lists this as one of several Domesday references to Scandinavian names derived from occupations. He cites (198) BOESON as similar-. His map (178) of the distribution of English family names ending in -son shows only 2 each originating in Cornwall and Devon and 4 in Somerset; unfortunately the actual names are not given. The spelling of names, until the recent past, was inconsistent. Thus the Butson families of East Budleigh, Devon show up in White's 1850 directory of Devon as BASTIN. Other possible spellings are numerous and include legitimately distinct names: BOSTON, BUXTON, BOTSON, BOSTON, BATSEN, BATSIN, BUDSEN, BUTTSON, and more. Rare as it is, BUTSON research is difficult because of the many variants." (Taken from
Butson Family Genealogy, although written by Walter Wesley Johnston).
