Neilson is a patronymic surname meaning "son of Neil".
The prefix Neil- is of Irish Gaelic origin, a genitive of 'Niall', possibly meaning "Champion" or "Cloud".
Neilson, as a surname, is common in English language-speaking countries, but less common as a given name.
It can be an anglicisation of MacNeil (Gaelic: MacNeill) or the Scandinavian name, Nielsen.
People with the name Neilson or its variant spellings include: