Those of us named Olmon realize what a strange name it is. Even though we are of Swedish stock, the name does not sound Swedish; it is neither a patronymic like Johnson, Nelson, Carlson, etc., nor a "nature name" like Bjorkquist, Sjostrand, Ekblad, etc. One would be hard pressed to tell our national origin by our surname.
Then there is the spelling problem. People seem to blank when we spell the name. The most common misspelling is Olman, but Ohman, Ullmann and other variations occur as well. Cousin Mark R. Olmon often uses Olson when giving his name for a dinner reservation.
The reason for this confusion is that the Olmon name was created by O. E. Olmon, whose original surname was
Olson, during his seminary years at Augustana Lutheran Seminary in Rock Island,
Ill. According to the legend, he and another Oscar Olson at the school
repeatedly got their mail confused. This was inconvenient, but when love letters addressed to O. E. were delivered to the wrong man, something had to be done, so O. E. altered his surname by changing the "s" to an "m."
Apparently he came upon this particular name by combining parts of his
father's and his mother's name. O. E. Olmon's mother was Anna Bryntesdotter
Tällman. The Värmland emigrant register gives her place of residence
as a farm called Mon. This was in the Köla parish near Lässerud.
She was commonly known in Sweden as "Anna på Mon." Mon was
apparently a piece of land or farm owned by Anna's parents, which was a
rather light-soiled, sandy meadow. O. E. combined the "Ol" from
his father's name and the "Mon" from his mother's birthplace to
come up with "Olmon."
Sign showing the location of the derelict Mon homestead, Värmland
O. E. Olmon's brother Ben also changed his last name to Olmon, although
his sisters did not.
Because the Olmon surname was invented, we thought we were the only family with that name. However, there is another Olmon family in the Denton, Texas, area. We are not related to those people, but we wish them well.
Sources: O. E. Olmon's memoirs, recollections of Emma Olmon's stories, Mark R. Olmon, Gary Olmon.
