Hollins
A surname usually linked to a holly grove or holly hedge, and sometimes to places named from that feature.
The #3,499 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,231 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hollins is commonly treated as a locational surname from a place-name built on Old English hollyn or holen, meaning “holly,” with a later plural or -s ending. In older forms, it could refer to a holly hedge, holly trees, or a place characterized by hollies. The related forms Hollis and Holliss point to the same root, and some historical spellings also connect it with names like Hollyhedge or Hollin-hagh.
History
The name is found in northern English records and place-names, especially in districts where hollies were a noticeable landscape feature. Nineteenth-century surname writers grouped Hollins with other names derived from natural features and local field-names. It survives today both as a surname and in place-names across northern England.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older records, surnames in this family were sometimes written with very different endings, so Hollins, Hollis, and Holliss could all point back to the same basic “holly” root.
From the historical record
“At a somewhat later date the late Philip Gilbert Hamerton (editor of the Portfolio) became a school-friend of the writer of this preface. The Worsthorn Moors and the country adjoining the ' Hollins," so graphically depicted in ' A Painter's Camp,' were traversed together ; and many incidents might be recalled to…”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances