Explore the Family Name Sherrard

The meaning of Sherrard

English: 1. from an unrecorded Middle English personal name Shirard (Old English Scīrheard, composed of the elements scīr ‘bright’ and heard ‘hard, bold’). Alternatively, the name may be a nickname deriving from Middle English shir (Old English scīr) ‘bright, fair’, with the addition of the Anglo-Norman French suffix -ard. 2. local pronunciation of Sherwood, especially perhaps in Leicestershire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Sussex, and Yorkshire. It may also have been much confused with Skerritt. This name, or the name in 1 above, has been established in Ireland (Derry) since the 17th century, along with Sherwood (in most provinces). 3. variant of Scarratt, perhaps a habitational name from an unidentified locality in or near Audley (Staffordshire), implied by the surname of Henry Skaryok (1298) or Scarioc (1307), who appears as a tenant in Horton, near Rudyard, in the Audley estate records. Skaryok might refer to a damaged or mis-shapen oak tree (Middle English scarri ‘(?) scraggy’), later developing to Scariot through the common substitution of /t/ for final /k/. Alternatively, the spellings may be copyists’ errors for Scariot, perhaps a nickname from playing the part of Judas Iscariot in a mystery play. The name seems to have been thoroughly confused with Sherrard and its many variants.

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