Flood
Usually an English spelling of the Welsh surname Lloyd, though it can also be a local name from living near flood-prone water.
The #2,125 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,105 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Flood is often explained as an English form of Welsh Lloyd, which in turn comes from Welsh llwyd, meaning “grey” or “brown.” Early writers also associated it with Welsh patronymic forms in ap- Lloyd, which could be anglicized in several ways. A second, separate explanation is local English: the name could refer to someone living by land or a stream that floods, or near a flood-gate or overflow channel.
History
Older surname dictionaries especially note Flood as a spelling that arose in English contexts from Welsh Lloyd. That makes it one of several anglicized Welsh names that changed shape when recorded by English clerks. The local-English explanation also appears in historical sources, so in some families the surname may have developed independently from place or residence rather than from Welsh ancestry.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century writers even quoted mock-Welsh speech using Flood as an anglicized form of Lloyd.
From the historical record
“FLOCKT ON. A chapelr j in Yorkshire. FLOOD. The English corruption of Lloyd, which is too gi^ttural for our organs of pronunciation. Andrew Borde m his Boke of Knowledge makes a Welchman say — , , " I am a gentvlman and come of Brutus b oocl ;”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom