Marchand
A French occupational surname meaning “merchant” or “trader.”
The #5,275 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,709 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Marchand comes from Old French marchand, meaning “merchant” or “trader,” ultimately from Latin mercantem, “one who trades.” The word is closely related to French marché (“market”), reflecting a name formed from commercial activity. In surname use, it originally identified a person engaged in buying and selling goods.
History
This is a common French occupational surname and was also recorded in medieval forms such as le Marchant and Mercator, the Latin equivalent. It spread widely in French-speaking areas and later appears in North America through French immigration and diaspora communities. English records sometimes preserve the same name in French spelling, especially where French families settled abroad.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname has the same basic meaning as the English name Merchant and the Latinized form Mercator.
From the historical record
“A eranu was a pedlar's pack. ' Ane pedder is called an marchand, or creamer, qhua bearis ane pack or creame vpon his back ' (Skene, Verb. Sign.). All my quotations are from Jamieson, who shows that cream, craim, and cramg also”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)