Goldman
A surname meaning “gold man,” most often understood as from the personal name Gold plus the suffix -man.
The #1,495 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,897 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Goldman is usually explained as a name built from Gold, a personal name or nickname, plus the English surname-forming suffix -man. In older scholarship it was also interpreted as a corruption of German Waldmann, meaning “forest man” or “woodman,” but that explanation is less certain. In practice, the name most likely arose independently in more than one place from similar-sounding elements.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers offered competing explanations for Goldman, with some treating it as an English patronymic formation and others linking it to German Waldmann. The name is found in English records by the early 17th century in the form Gouldman/Goldman, and it later became established in Britain and among Jewish families in English-speaking countries. The modern U.S. surname is especially associated with immigrant and Jewish naming histories, though it is not exclusive to them.
Origin
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Fun fact
Some early writers even listed Goldman alongside surnames ending in -man as an example of that productive surname suffix.
From the historical record
“deron, Goldrun, Waldron. GOLDMAN. See GOLDMAN. COLLAR. Kollr, Kolli, Koli are the names of several North- LUDUS PATKONYMICUS. 19 men in the Landnamabok, which Ferguson seems to think may be from 0. N. kollr, a helmet. I take it that Collar is a cor- ruption of Collard, son of Coll, i. e. Nicol. COLLARBONE. Lower…”
— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames