Means
An English and Irish surname most likely from a personal name, though some bearers may also descend from place-based or nickname forms.
The #2,247 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,055 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Means is generally treated as a surname formed from a given name or by-name rather than from the modern English noun “means.” In English usage it may reflect a reduced or altered form of a personal name such as Maine, Mayne, or a similar medieval baptismal name. In Irish families, it can also represent an Anglicized form of an older Gaelic surname with a similar sound, so the name is not always from one single source.
History
The surname appears in Britain and Ireland in more than one line, which helps explain why its origins are not uniform. In the United States it is found mainly as an established family name carried over by English and Irish immigrants and their descendants. Because the spelling is short and common, later records sometimes blur it with similar names such as Meins, Mains, or Maine.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because the surname is so close to the everyday word “means,” it has often been mistaken in old records for an ordinary noun rather than a family name.
From the historical record
“Frithuric, Eng. Frederick (Peace-Ruler), etc.; and Sweet enlarges on the meaning of Beowulf (lit. Bee- Wolf) in his 'A.-Saxon Reader,' p. 216, although I by no means agree with his extended explanation. Moreover we find at any rate one Anglo-Saxon, the Northumbrian Latin poet Ethelwolf (.(Ethelwulf), giving the…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)