Howard
A famous English surname with more than one possible origin, most often linked to an Old Norse personal name or to an older English office/place-name form.
The #75 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 1,166 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Howard has long puzzled etymologists, and early writers offered several explanations. One common view connects it with the Old Norse personal name Hávarðr (later forms like Havard/Haavard), meaning roughly 'high guardian' or 'chief protector.' Another older explanation links it to an English office or place-name form related to 'hayward' or to a Saxon-derived status name, but the evidence has never been entirely settled.
History
Howard became a major English noble surname, borne by the powerful Howard family from the late medieval period onward. Historical writers disagreed about whether the line was of Saxon, Danish, or Norwegian origin, and some later scholarship favored a Scandinavian personal-name source. The surname spread widely in England and later in Britain and North America, helped by the prominence of the Howard nobility and of many later notable bearers.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century antiquarians debated Howard so much that it became a classic example of a surname with a disputed origin.
From the historical record
“Hill. A-Sax. hou — a mountain. HOWARD. This noble historical name has been a sore puzzle to etymologists. See Eng. Surn. i. 133. A writer in the Quarterly Rev. vol. OIL says, the family " may be Saxon, may be Danish." They are more probablj' of Norwegian origin. Havard or Haavard was a common personal name among…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom