Landau
A surname usually tied to the German place name Landau, meaning someone from that town or region.
The #6,137 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 55,311 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Landau is most naturally explained as a habitational surname from one of the German towns called Landau, especially the well-known town in the Palatinate. The place name is generally taken to contain German land, meaning "land" or "country," with an old waterway or meadow element in the second part in some local interpretations, though the exact place-name history is not entirely certain. As a surname, it would have meant "person from Landau" or "one who came from Landau."
History
The name appears among German-speaking Jewish and non-Jewish families, and it is especially familiar in central and eastern European Jewish surname traditions. Because several German places share the name Landau, the surname could arise independently in more than one locality. It later spread widely through migration to North America and elsewhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Landau is also the name of a classic horse-drawn carriage, which sometimes causes the surname to look more unusual than it is.
From the historical record
“unter 120 hessischen Ortschaften 30, also den vierten Teil, als nicht mehr vorhanden (auf Grund der „Historisch -topographischen Beschreibung der wüsten Ortschaften im Kurfürstentum Hessen^ von Dr. Landau). Die großen Seuchen des Mittelalters, die verheerenden Kriege früherer Zeiten erklären dies zum großen Teile.…”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen