Family name origins & meanings
- English (Yorkshire) : habitational name from a place named with Middle English hard ‘difficult’, ‘inaccessible’, ‘impregnable’, or perhaps ‘cheerless’ + castel ‘castle’, ‘fortress’, ‘stronghold’ (see Castle), perhaps Hardcastle Garth in North Yorkshire or Hardcastle Crags in West Yorkshire, although either or both of these could be from the surname. It has been suggested that the surname may come from a Roman fort forming part of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.