Collard
Usually a surname from a medieval personal name, likely meaning “son of Coll” or a short form of Nicholas.
The #8,178 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,177 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Collard is best treated as a patronymic from a medieval personal name, probably Coll or Collard. In the older surname books, it is connected either with a diminutive or pet form of Nicholas, or with an early personal name built on Coll-. One 19th-century writer also proposed a more speculative Old English explanation from words meaning “helmet” and “hard,” but that derivation was rejected as unlikely by the same source.
History
Bardsley notes Collard as an early personal name in Gloucestershire and says the surname still remained there. The name is also found in medieval and later English records, including London parish material. In French and Dutch records, similar forms appear as surnames as well, which may reflect parallel development or borrowing.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A rival theory once tried to explain Collard as meaning “hard as a helmet,” but even its early defender seems to have doubted it.
From the historical record
“lowbone from Hollybourne, COLLARD. Ur. Ferguson fancifully derives it from A-Sax. col, a helmet, and heard, hard. But I find no such hard- headed gentleman in any early record. COLLARMAKER. The occupation. COLLED GE. Probably local, and with no reference to any seat of learning, or abode of charity. COLLEGE. In the…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom