Homan
Usually a surname for the servant or household man of someone named Hugh, though in some cases it may be a variant of Holman or derive from another local/personal-name source.
The #3,702 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,171 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name Homan has been explained in more than one way. One older English explanation treats it as a byname meaning “the man of Hugh” or “Hugh’s man,” with Hugh reduced in dialect to How. Another common view, especially in older surname books, is that Homan is simply a spelling variant of Holman. In some continental families, especially in Dutch or German contexts, similar forms may also reflect related personal-name formations.
History
The surname appears in medieval and later English records in several spellings, including Homan, Human, and related forms. Nineteenth-century surname scholars often linked it either to a personal-name nickname from Hugh or to Holman, and the exact origin can vary by family line. The name is found in England and later in North America, where it remained a modestly common surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes grouped Homan with names built from a person’s role in a household, the kind of nickname that could become hereditary over time.
From the historical record
“Quercu. HOMAN. The same as Holman. HOME. See Hume, of which it is an older orthography. HOMER. A medieval personal name. A saint bearing it gave name to St. Omer in Picardy, from whence the founder of the family may have come to England — not necessarily, however, since Homertou, Ho- mersham, Homersfield, &c.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom