The surnames Stidson, Stidston and Stitson were fairly common in south Devonshire in the early 1600s. The founders of the Stetson and Stilson families in America, Robert Stetson and Vincent Stilson, are believed to have been first cousins from Modbury, Devonshire, whose surname was spelled Stitson in England, but became spelled differently after their arrival in New England

Set forth below are the results of a search on familysearch.org for records relating to the different surname spellings for persons with birth years from 1900-1950, which shows their relative frequency in modern times:

Stetson        26,887
Stilson           9,710
Stillson          5,055
Stitson           2,250
Stutson          1,219
Stidston            955
Stidson             402