Robinson: A Surname History (Paperback)

Description

Robinson: A Surname History — Volume 34 of The Surname Histories Series. Bright fame — Germanic hruod (fame) + beraht (bright), through Norman Robert to medieval Robin, hardening into Robinson in the northern counties of England. ROBINSON stands No. 30 in the 2010 U.S. Census with 529,821 bearers — up from No. 27 in 2000 (503,028), a steady +5.3% (+26,793 bearers), one of America’s most evenly shared names (48.70% White, 44.93% Black) — sitting directly behind Lewis at #29 and completing the series’ ten-book running echo (Lee #25 → Pérez #26 → Thompson #27 → White #28 → Harris #29 → Sánchez #30 → Clark #31 → Ramírez #32 → Lewis #33 → Robinson #34). The signature story is Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) — who broke baseball’s color line on 15 April 1947 — honored with one verified portrait plate: the 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers-uniform photograph (the LOOK Magazine photograph by Bob Sandberg, Library of Congress; public domain); a gallery of bearers runs from Sugar Ray Robinson and Edward G. Robinson to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Smokey Robinson, and Mary Robinson; three heraldic plates — the Earl of Ripon’s green-and-gold bucks at gaze, the Rokeby roebucks trippant, and the blank honest shield, drawn programmatically from published blazons — show why no single coat of arms belongs to a surname (Burke’s General Armory records fifty-four distinct Robinson arms); and a gazetteer of Robinson places maps Robinson, Illinois; Robinson, Kansas; Robinson, Texas; Robinson, North Dakota; and Robinson Township, Pennsylvania.