Dawson is an English surname that means "son of David"; David itself is Hebrew for "beloved". The teen drama Dawson's Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003, put the name on American parents' lists. Dawson ranked 168th in the United States in 2000, drifted back to the 200s for a decade and has climbed again since 2022, reaching number 139 in 2024 and number 143 in 2025.