The Moxon Surname & its Variants
Moxon? Moakson? Moxan? Moxham? Megson? Maggson? Moxom?
If you search for an ancestor with one of the above-mentioned surnames, sooner or later – whether in a census record, in a will or in a parish register – you will find a variant spelling. So a Moxham may have once been a Moxon or vice versa or then again, may have nothing to do with the Moxon “family”.
Moxon is considered a “matronymic” from the medieval personal name of Mag(ge), a reduced form of Margaret (see Margeson); but in some cases a patronymic from the old English personal name Mocca.
There is some suggestion that it could also be derived from Mog (son) a medieval nickname for Matthew – another Patronymic.
Moxham, on the other hand, is generally thought to be a habitational name from a lost place called Moxhams, in Atworth, Wiltshire (www.ancestry.co.uk) or alternatively, a metronymic the same as Moxon above. However, the geographic distribution of Moxham is very different from Moxon: see the map under Distribution of Surnames on this website.