Hoard
A surname probably linked to a hoard or treasury, originally a byname for someone connected with wealth or keeping valuables.
The #8,299 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,341 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This name is usually explained from Old English *hord*, meaning “hoard,” “treasure,” or “store of valuables.” As a surname it may have begun as a nickname or occupational byname for someone associated with keeping treasure, provisions, or a storehouse. Some 19th-century writers grouped it with names suggesting thrift or stewardship, but the basic sense is still “hoard/treasure.”
History
The spelling has been recorded alongside related forms such as Hoare and Hord, and older surname books often treated them as connected or interchangeable in origin. In English records, surnames built from descriptive nouns like this could arise independently in more than one place, so modern bearers may not all share a single ancestral line. The name is uncommon in the United States today, but it survives as a small English-language surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname compiler explicitly filed Hoard among names associated with “thrift and poverty,” reflecting the old idea of a person who saved or stored carefully.
From the historical record
“Traaaiire.— I — , OX-lnser, treasure, a hoard. It is manifest that the Somersetshire Treasures are descended from Nichols Tresor mentioned below. The only difficulty is to account for tbe sobriquet Possibly i”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances