Garland
Usually an English surname from a place-name or from an old personal name, later associated with the word for a wreath or bouquet.
The #1,309 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,529 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lower treated Garland as a local surname, though he could not identify the exact place behind it. The name may also reflect an early personal name such as Graland/Gerland, which appears in medieval records and may be related to continental Germanic forms. The modern word garland, meaning a wreath or bouquet, is a later-looking association and is not necessarily the source of the surname, though it may have helped shape its spelling.
History
Medieval records cited by Bardsley show forms such as Graland, Garland, and Gerlond, and he links the name to a Breton personal name, Gradlon, in at least some cases. Lower also notes John de Garlande, the Paris scholar and author of the Dictionarius, and says the family appears in historic records without a clear prefix. The surname has long been found in English landed families, especially in counties such as Essex, Surrey, Lincolnshire, and Sussex.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
John de Garlande, mentioned by Lower, was an English-born scholar who taught in Paris in the 12th and 13th centuries.
From the historical record
“GARFORD. A chapelry in Berkshire. GARLAND. A local surname, but I cannot find the place. John de Garlande, author of the Dictionarius, flourished in the XII. and XIII. cent. Though a pro- fessor at Paris, he was an Englishman by birth. See Wright's Vocab. p. 1 20. Ger- land, the first mathematical writer in Eng-…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom