Explore the Family Name Hard

The meaning of Hard

1. English: variant of Heard. Compare Hardman. 2. English, German, Dutch, and Swedish (Hård): nickname for a stern or severe man, from Middle English, Middle Low German hard, Middle Dutch hart, hert, Swedish hård ‘hard, inflexible’. The Swedish name was probably originally a soldier’s name. 3. English: topographic name denoting a dweller on hard, firm ground, from a transferred use of the adjective in 2 above, or perhaps sometimes from a landing-place, as in the modern Hampshire use of the term hard. Compare Hardacre. 4. English: perhaps from a Middle English survival of an unrecorded Old English personal name Heard or else a borrowing of the ancient Germanic cognate Hardo. Both are from the adjective meaning ‘hard’, which was the basis of a number of Old English and ancient Germanic personal names like Harding and H(e)ardwin.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.