This interesting Scottish name is of uncertain origin but is probably a locational name. This is a surname of an ancient Galloway family which ended in the direct line of James IV in the late 15th Century. Carsons were provosts of Dumfries for several generations, and were also prominent in the local affairs of Kirkcudbrightshire. In the modern idiom the variants include Corson, Corsan, Curzon. Two of the three name bearers listed in the National Biography were mininsters eg., Aglionby Ross Carson (1780 - 1850), a baptist minster at Tobermore, Derry. Kit Carson the famous indian scout may have been of Scottish origin! The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Sir Robert de Carsan, which was dated 1276, in the "Records of Holm Cultram", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.