Hudson is an English surname meaning "son of Hudd", a medieval nickname for Hugh or Richard, and in America it is above all a place: the Hudson River and the explorer Henry Hudson who sailed it in 1609. As a first name it belongs to the surname trend of the 2000s. Hudson stood at number 588 in 2000, reached the top 100 in 2012 and ranks seventeenth in 2025, its best position yet.