This article is about the surname Howard. For the given name, see
Howard. For other uses, see
Howard (disambiguation).
Howard
Pronunciation
HOW-erd
Other names
Variant form(s)
Howerd, Heward and Huard
Howard is a common
Englishsurname. One source for this surname is with the Gaelic names Ó hOghartaigh and Ó hIomhair.[1] Other origins also exist. The dominant theory pertains to the
Frenchpersonal namesHuard and Houard adapted after the
Norman Conquest of 1066. It is from a Germanic source similar to Old High German *Hugihard "heart-brave," or *Hoh-ward, literally "high defender; chief guardian." Also probably in some cases a confusion with cognate
Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Haward from Hávarðr, which means ha(r) "high" (or hǫð "battle") and element varðr, meaning "guardian", and sometimes also with unrelated Hayward. In some rare cases from Old English eowu hierde "ewe herd."[2][3][4] In
Anglo-Norman the French digramm -ou- was often rendered as -ow- such as couard → coward, tour → tower, flour (western variant form of fleur) → flower, etc (two last examples with
svarabakhti, typical of the Anglo-Norman language). The first public record of the surname is dated 1221 in
Cambridgeshire. There are several variant surname spellings.[5]
This page lists people with the
surnameHoward. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.
This article is about the surname Howard. For the given name, see
Howard. For other uses, see
Howard (disambiguation).
Howard
Pronunciation
HOW-erd
Other names
Variant form(s)
Howerd, Heward and Huard
Howard is a common
Englishsurname. One source for this surname is with the Gaelic names Ó hOghartaigh and Ó hIomhair.[1] Other origins also exist. The dominant theory pertains to the
Frenchpersonal namesHuard and Houard adapted after the
Norman Conquest of 1066. It is from a Germanic source similar to Old High German *Hugihard "heart-brave," or *Hoh-ward, literally "high defender; chief guardian." Also probably in some cases a confusion with cognate
Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Haward from Hávarðr, which means ha(r) "high" (or hǫð "battle") and element varðr, meaning "guardian", and sometimes also with unrelated Hayward. In some rare cases from Old English eowu hierde "ewe herd."[2][3][4] In
Anglo-Norman the French digramm -ou- was often rendered as -ow- such as couard → coward, tour → tower, flour (western variant form of fleur) → flower, etc (two last examples with
svarabakhti, typical of the Anglo-Norman language). The first public record of the surname is dated 1221 in
Cambridgeshire. There are several variant surname spellings.[5]
This page lists people with the
surnameHoward. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.