Harriman
An English surname likely built from the name Harry/Harold plus the familiar suffix -man, though one older source oddly linked it to “to pillage.”
The #6,694 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 61,198 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The most plausible explanation is that Harriman began as a surname built from the personal name Harry, a short form of Henry or sometimes Harold, with -man used in the old English sense of “servant,” “follower,” or “man associated with.” Some 19th-century writers also connected it with a northern word meaning “to pillage,” but that explanation is much less convincing and is best treated cautiously. The name may also have been influenced by related forms such as Harryman.
History
The surname is recorded in England by the 14th century, and later examples appear in London and elsewhere in the 16th and 17th centuries. Bardsley explicitly rejected Lower’s old “freebooter” explanation and grouped Harriman with other surnames ending in -man that likely refer to association or service. The name remains relatively uncommon, though it survived into modern usage in Britain and later in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century etymologist confidently called Harriman a “freebooter or ravager,” but that interpretation was already being challenged by other scholars of the same era.
From the historical record
“HARRIED. The same as Harold. HARRIMAN. HARRYMAN. To Jtame is an old northernism for to pillage, and a Harriman is therefore a freebooter or ravager. HxVRRINGTOX. Parishes In cos. Lin- coln and Northampton. HARRIS. From Henry, through Harry, and thence Harrison. "It is in recent times only, that a Saxon Harris…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom