Elder
Usually a surname for someone who lived by an elder tree or elderberry, though it can also reflect the word for an elder or senior person.
The #1,186 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,362 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In English surname use, Elder is most commonly taken from Middle English elder, meaning the elder tree (or elderberry shrub), from Old English æld/eller and related Germanic forms. It could also sometimes be a descriptive byname for an older man, or a status term for a senior or senior churchman, but the tree-name explanation is the one explicitly noted in the historical sources here. The surname may have begun as a locative form, essentially meaning 'at the elder tree.'
History
The name is found in England and appears in early surname collections as a straightforward topographic surname. Like many surnames formed from trees and landscape features, it would have been adopted independently by different families in different places. It is also common enough in Scotland and North America through later migration and natural population growth.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The elder tree was once widely used in folk medicine and country crafts, so a surname like Elder could point to a very ordinary but useful plant near someone’s home.
From the historical record
“NEISH for Mao Neish, q.v. N ELDER (Eng.) a contr. of Atten-Elder = At THE Elder (-Tree) [E.M.E. at \en eldre: v. Elder'] Cp. Nalder.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)