Sands
A topographic surname for someone who lived on or by sandy ground or sandbanks.
The #1,944 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,614 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Sands comes from Middle English and Old English words for sand and sandy ground. It was used for someone living beside a sandy tract, dune, shoreline, or sandbank. Some writers also treated Sandys as an old spelling of the same name.
History
The name appears in English records in several spellings, including Sands and Sandys. It is especially natural as a surname in places with exposed coastal sands or sandy river land. Later bearers of the name spread widely across Britain and, through migration, to North America and elsewhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same basic place-word also shows up in local names such as the Goodwin Sands, which were named from the family name Godwin, not from the surname Sands itself.
From the historical record
“Mm, home, estate] SANDS (Eng.) Dweller at the Sands [O.E. saM, sand] SANDY (A.-Gr.) a double dim. of Alexander, q.v. [E. dim. suff. -y\ (Eng.) Bel. to ' Sandy (Beds), 13th cent. Sandye, Sandeye, Domesday 'in Sandeia' = the Sandy Riparian Land [O.E. sand,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)