Where the Thompson name comes from

Thompson is a variant of Thomson, and both mean son of Thom, which is to say son of Thomas. It is also the English translation of MacTavish, itself the anglicised form of the Gaelic MacTamhais, so a Scottish Thompson and an English one can be the same meaning reached along different roads. A third possibility is geographical rather than familial, a parish called Thompson in Norfolk. Settlers carried the name into Ireland during the Plantation period.