Haggard
A surname with several possible roots: most likely from an old personal name, but sometimes linked to a hay-yard or rick-yard.
The #4,230 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,826 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Historical sources give more than one explanation for Haggard. One line of interpretation treats it as a patronymic from an old baptismal name recorded in medieval forms such as Hacgard, Acard, or Acardus, ultimately tied to a personal name rather than a common noun. Another explanation connects it with "hay-garth" or "hay yard," meaning a place for storing hay or a rick-yard. Because the surname appears in several related spellings, the true origin may differ by family line.
History
Bardsley notes medieval spellings such as Hacgard and treats Haggard as the usual English form of that patronymic. Lower, however, says the surname may also have been influenced by or derived from a topographic term for a hay-yard, and he mentions a possible link with the Ogards of Hertfordshire. In later usage the name appears in England and in American records, with variant forms like Hagger and Haggar.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name has long attracted competing explanations, and 19th-century surname scholars did not fully agree on whether it began as a personal name or a place-related nickname.
From the historical record
“HAGG. Broken ground in a bog. Halllw. HAGGARD. 1. According to B.L.G. the family are supposed to l.ie derived from the Ogards of co. Herts. 2. Haggard is a cori'uptiou of " hay-garth," a rick yard, and is so employed iu Hall and Holiushed, as well as in several i^roviucial dialects. See Garth. .3, and most…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom