Glaze
A surname with Cornish roots, probably meaning “green” or “green land,” though some sources also connect it with brightness or gloss.
The #5,005 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,968 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest historical evidence points to a Cornish origin, from a word recorded as meaning “green,” used in place-names and likely as a descriptive byname. In Cornish materials, Glaze is linked with forms like Carglaze and Polglase, both understood as referring to green ground or green rock. Other 19th-century surname writers also noticed the resemblance to English "glaze" and to Germanic words for brightness, so a secondary association with shining or glossy appearance has been suggested.
History
The name is especially at home in Cornwall, where related place-names preserve the same Cornish element. Outside Cornwall, it likely spread as a transferred surname or as an Anglicized form of a similar local name. Some Victorian etymologists also treated Glaze as part of a wider family of surnames connected with brightness or sheen, but that explanation is less specific than the Cornish one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Cornish place-names such as Carglaze helped preserve the old meaning, and one source glosses it as the “green rock” of a tin mine.
From the historical record
“green downs. GLAZE. From glaze^ glase, green. Carglaze (the green CORNU-BRITANNICA. 43 rock) is the name of a tin mine in St. Austell. Cf. Pol- glase. GLAZON. See Glasson. GLENCROSS. From glen-crotts, the cross in the dale.”
— Patronymica Cornu-Britannica; or, the etymology of Cornish surnames