Canon Last Name: Meaning and Heraldic Roots

Heraldry is personal: arms associated with the Cannon surname were borne by specific families, and sharing the name does not mean sharing the blazon.

What Canon means

Long before computers fixed spellings, Canon and Cannon were used side by side. Read literally, Canon points to “Canon (cleric), or descendant of Canannán”.

Canon drops the “n” of Cannon, a simplification that clerks often made. Census takers and immigration officers often wrote what they heard. French birth records list 1,727 children named Canon between 1891 and 2000. Births under the name grew in the later decades. In Spain, the INE population register lists 119 people with Canon as their first surname and 102 as their second.

Want more than a summary? See the Canon family name pack.