Menard
A French surname that began as a shortened form of an old Germanic personal name meaning “brave-minded” or “strong and hardy.”
The #3,126 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,747 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Menard is a French surname built from an old personal name rather than from a place or occupation. The historical forms point to a shortened version of an earlier Germanic name, often reconstructed as Menhard or Menhardt, ultimately from elements meaning “strength” or “hardy” and “brave” or “bold.” In older scholarship it is also linked with longer Germanic forms such as Megnhard and Megenhard, all in the same broad name family.
History
The name is attested in medieval France and was already regarded as old by 19th-century surname scholars. French Menard is treated as the French form of a wider Germanic name type, with related forms appearing across Germanic-speaking regions. In English-language surname lists it turns up as an established continental surname, later carried abroad by migration.
Origin
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Fun fact
A 19th-century French source explicitly says Menard was an old Germanic name already written that way by the 11th century.
From the historical record
“Germ. D. Meinert ; Dch. Meijr hardt ; FI. Meynaert ; D.L Mainard ; Fr. Menard ; p.r See Mayger. Hugt. n., Dove- 1622 Maniard in Roll of Battell Abbey.”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)