Coward
Originally an occupational name for a cowherd, later also associated with the ordinary English word for a timid person.
The #6,012 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 53,976 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is usually explained as a reduced form of Middle English cowherd, meaning someone who tended cows. That makes it a straightforward occupational surname, like Shepherd or Hayward. Some older writers noted the similarity to the common noun coward, but for the surname the cowherd derivation is generally the better explanation.
History
The name appears in English records in forms that point to rural occupational origins. Victorian surname writers debated whether the spelling was influenced by the later word coward, but most treated the family name as historically linked to cattle keeping. It survives today as a fairly uncommon English surname, with spellings that have often settled into the modern form Coward.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname scholars explicitly compared Coward with other occupational names such as Shepherd and Hayward.
From the historical record
“to Cowanstoun. COWARD. Although the popular de- rivation of this opprobrious word from "cow-herd " (wliose occupation would bere- garded with some disdain by the chivalrous in the middle ages) is untenable, I think it quite probable that the surname may be from that source, like Shepherd, Ha}^ward, and other…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom