The English surname Simon, also found in France, Germany, Scotland and Ireland, is of patronymic origin deriving from the personal name Simon. Both Simon and Simeon were in use as personal names in western Europe from the Middle Ages onward. The first European recording of Simon as a personal name is probably that of Simonus, a monk, in the register of St. Benets, Holme Abbey, Norfolk, England, in the year 1134. The name is first recorded in the New World in 1642 when Thomas Simon arrived in Maryland. Today there are approximately 75,000 bearers of the name Simon living in the US.