Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • English (chiefly Lancashire) : occupational name for a herdsman, a variant of Herdman (see Heard). (The change of -er- to -ar- was a regular phonetic pattern in Old French and Middle English.)
  • English : from an unattested Old English personal name Heardmann, composed of the elements heard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’ + mann ‘man’. According to Reaney and Wilson, compound names with this second element became common in late Old English in eastern England.
  • Irish : of English origin (see above), but sometimes confused with Harman.
  • Dutch : variant of Hardeman 2.
  • Americanized spelling of German Hartmann.