Link
A surname most likely from the place-name or nickname family found in forms like Linch, though its exact origin is not fully settled.
The #1,627 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 13,947 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Older surname dictionaries treat Link as the same as Linch, suggesting a connection with an English place-name or local topographic word rather than a clearly separate root. The name may therefore have begun as a habitational surname for someone from a place called Linch/Link, or from a related local feature word that later became fixed as a family name. Because the historical sources do not give a single secure derivation, the safest reading is that Link belongs to this older English surname group rather than having one universally accepted meaning.
History
The surname is recorded in 19th-century surname dictionaries as an established English name, but those works generally direct readers to Linch rather than offering a full independent analysis. It appears in English records early enough to be treated as a traditional surname, and the modern bearers are concentrated in English-speaking countries, especially the United States. The name is not especially common, which fits a surname that likely developed locally and then spread by migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A major early surname dictionary simply cross-references LINK to LINCH, showing that even expert etymologists did not treat it as a clearly separate family name.
From the historical record
“Langbam. LINK. The same as Linch. LINKINHORNE. A parish in Corn- wall. LINLEY. See Lindley. LINNEGAR. See Lingard, LINNET. A Fr. name of uncertain origin.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom