Hart
A surname that can mean “stag” in English tradition or “hard/firm” in German and Jewish usage.
The #207 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 2,251 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hart has more than one historical source. In English usage, it often goes back to Middle English hart, meaning a male deer or stag, which also appears in medieval nicknames and heraldry. In German and some Jewish family lines, Hart can reflect a word meaning “hard,” “strong,” or “stiff,” used as a surname element or as a shortened form of longer names.
History
English records preserve Hart as a nickname surname and as a heraldic term, especially in medieval and later surname collections. The name is also common among families of German or Jewish background, where the sense is not “deer” but a word related to firmness or severity. Because both traditions are well attested, the surname is best treated as having multiple independent origins.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Lower’s 19th-century dictionary explicitly notes that Hart was also a common heraldic charge, not just a surname.
From the historical record
“HARSTOX. A jiarisli inco. Cambridge. HART. A male deer — a common charge of lieraldrj'. Its medieval form as a sur- name is ' Le Hart.' We have a large im- portation of Harts from Germany, where the word imi^lies hard, stiif, inflexible, rude, or severe. Manj' Jewish families hear this name. HARTCUP. Of German…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom