Holliman
Likely a nickname surname meaning “holy man,” though some early spellings also point to related forms like Holloman and Holeyman.
The #7,265 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,323 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as Middle English holi man, literally “holy man,” used as a nickname for a pious person or someone connected with the clergy. The old sources also compare it with spelling variants such as Holeyman and Holloman, which support the same basic idea. A minority of explanations in older scholarship link some forms to holly or holm/oak names, but for Holliman the “holy man” derivation is the usual one.
History
The name appears in early records in a variety of spellings, including Holyman and Holloman, showing that the written form was not yet fixed. Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century surname writers repeatedly treated it as a nickname surname rather than a true occupational or place-name. In modern use it survives chiefly in England and the United States, where it remains uncommon but well established.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes grouped Holliman with a wider family of “holy” nickname names, alongside forms like Holliday and Halloway.
From the historical record
“HoUyman,Holleyinan,Hol- man, Holeyman, Holliman, Holloman^^oly man. — ( i)Nick. * the holy man/ i. e. the priest, the friar. With Hollyman, cf. Holly, well, or hollyhock and holiday. The shorter Holman must be re-”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)