Roland
A medieval personal name, best known from the heroic Roland of French epic, later adopted as a surname.
The #1,860 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,988 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Roland began as a personal name, not a place-name or occupation. It comes through Old French from a Germanic compound usually reconstructed as *Hruodland or *Hrodland, with elements meaning “fame” or “glory” and “land.” In older surname works it is often linked with the legendary hero Roland, which helped keep the name popular.
History
As a surname, Roland usually developed from the common medieval given name, either directly or in forms such as Rowland and Rolland. The name became widely familiar through the French epic 'The Song of Roland,' which spread its prestige across medieval Europe. English surname writers also treated Roland as closely related to Rowland and Rollo, though exact spellings and lineages could vary by region and family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
'The Song of Roland' helped make Roland one of the best-known heroic names of the Middle Ages.
From the historical record
“with the fem. agent. suS. -ster [O.E. -estre] ROLAND (Fr.-Teut. ) Famous Land [Fr. Roland, O.Fr. Rollant, O.Teut. Ruotlant, Hruodlant, Hr&Sland, etc. (mod. Ger. Ru(d)- land): v. under Roderick and Rodger, and -1- O.Teut. land ( O.H.Ger. lant ), land, country] In the ' Chanson de Roland ' we find the forms Rollant…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)