Loveland
An English surname that may come from a place-name with the element *land* and a first element that is either "love" or possibly an old word for "wolf."
The #5,968 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 53,546 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Loveland is usually treated as a locational or place-name surname. The second element is straightforwardly "land," while the first element is less certain: it may be the familiar word "love," or, in some early local-name interpretations, an older element related to "wolf." Because of that uncertainty, the name is best explained as a surname taken from a place called Loveland or something similar, rather than as a simple descriptive nickname.
History
19th- and early-20th-century surname writers recorded Loveland alongside other English names built from "love-" elements, but they did not agree on a single origin. Some treated it as a name formed from personal-name elements, while others noted that in place-names the first element might not mean "love" at all. The surname is established in England and later appears in English-speaking countries, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname dictionaries even compared Loveland with names like Lovelace, Loveless, and Loveridge, showing how many English surnames were reinterpreted through the word "love."
From the historical record
“sion, Gettings, Getty, Pickens, Picup, Holding, Cribbin, Cribby, More, Muchemore, Mdciimore, Pa ye, Land, Landy, Loveland, Nolan d, Nolan, NowLEN, Hadfield, Micklefield, &c. We have Pay^son, Payton (i.e., " pay-town ") ; also Nachman (German for " second indorser "). One of the judges of Missouri is named Lackland.…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)