Family name origins & meanings
- Variant of Scottish Atchison. This spelling is of Scottish origin, but since the 17th century has been especially common in northern Ireland.
- Among the individuals who brought this name from northern Ireland to North America was John Acheson (d. 1791). He took up residence in Washington, DC, where he was joined by his brother Thomas c. 1786. John founded a business furnishing government troops with supplies in the Indian wars. Their ancestor Archibald Acheson had moved from Gosford, Haddington, Scotland, to Ulster in 1604, where he received lands from King James VI as part of the ‘plantation’ of Ulster by Protestant Scots.