None of the information on this website would be here without the extensive research and investigation carried out by Geoffrey M. Hodgson into the historical, etymological and genetic origins of 'Hodgson' and its related surnames. Everything on this website is his, and I am eternally grateful to him for allowing me to become the curator of this portion of his extensive work.
Geoffrey is the author of Hodgson Saga (Martlet Books 2008) and the leading authority on the alternative view that the surname Hodgson is derived from Norse and not from French.
Currently Emeritus Professor at the London campus of Loughborough University and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Institutional Economics, he is recognised as one of the leading figures of modern critical institutionalism, which carries forth the critical spirit and intellectual tradition of the founders of institutional economics.
As regards 'Hodgson', in his own words: "The Hodgson surname comes from the north of England. But since about 1840 my branch of the Hodgson clan lived in and around London, where the surname is much less frequent. In the 1980s I traced back my own Hodgson line as far back as I could, to the sixteenth century in the north-west of England. Then I turned to the origins of the Hodgson surname, which had perplexed me since my youth. My initial research on its geographical distribution from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century found that it was most common in Cumbria and North Lancashire, in areas that coincided almost exactly with the zones of Norse Viking settlement in the tenth century. The Hodgson DNA project, which started in the 1990s, provided evidence from over 90 samples that was consistent with the Norse origins of the surname. I am delighted that this website has been set up to share information about the Hodgson surname and its heritage."
At the age of 76, Geoffrey has retired from the everyday management of the website, but will continue to manage the Hodgson DNA project.