Vernon comes from a Norman French surname and place name in Normandy that means "alder grove", from the Gaulish word verno, alder. It arrived in England with the Normans and became a given name in America in the 19th century, when Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate, made it familiar. In the United States Vernon ranked number 820 in 2000, has since dropped out of the top 1000 and sits at number 1387 in 2025.