Canada
An unusual surname that likely began as a locational name, referring to someone from the place-name Canada or adopted from it later.
The #3,616 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 31,444 Americans shares it.
Etymology
As a surname, Canada is most plausibly locational: it would originally have identified someone connected with the place-name Canada. The country name itself comes through early French usage from an Indigenous word, usually explained as a term meaning 'village' or 'settlement.' The family name may also have been adopted later from the geographic name rather than from an older hereditary surname tradition.
History
The surname is rare and seems to appear mostly in English-speaking countries, especially in records from North America. The 19th- and early-20th-century sources supplied here mention people called Canada only incidentally, not as a detailed surname entry, so there is little evidence for a single established medieval origin. In modern use, it is more likely to be a relatively recent surname formed from the national or regional name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Canada is also the name of a country, the surname is one of those rare names that can be mistaken for a place reference in old directories and census lists.
From the historical record
“Andrew, and no wonder that An- derson has followed Scotch em IgTB- lioD till Canada and the United States are flooded with it. But Andrew was very popular in ita day in England, as our Andrews can testify. In any case, as an apostolic name it was bound to”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances