Gaines
A surname most often explained as a variant of Gain or a related Norman-French place-name form, rather than a word with one single clear origin.
The #788 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,046 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Gaines is usually treated as a spelling variant of Gain, Gaine, or related forms such as Gainer and Gainor. Some 19th-century writers linked it to Norman-French and place-name roots, while others thought it might be a corruption of another surname form such as Gaymer. Because the historical record points in more than one direction, the exact origin is not certain from the excerpts alone.
History
The surname appears in English and Anglo-Norman contexts, and related forms were noted in both British and American records. Historical surname writers also connected Gaines with other names in the same cluster, such as Gaine, Gainer, and Gainsford, suggesting a family of overlapping spellings rather than a single fixed origin. In the United States, Gaines became well known through bearers such as Gen. Edmund P. Gaines.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname sits in a whole cluster of look-alike spellings that 19th-century scholars often treated as variants of one another, which is why older dictionaries may disagree about its exact source.
From the historical record
“probably a medieval fop. GALN". GAINES. Gain. H.R. GAINER. Probably a corruption of Gaymer. GAJNSFORD. GAYNESFORD. This”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom