March
A surname that most often began as a place-name for someone living by a boundary or frontier, or from places called March.
The #3,344 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 28,804 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is commonly explained from Middle English *march(e)*, meaning a border, boundary, or frontier, ultimately from Old English *mearc* with the same sense. In that use, it would have described someone who lived near a boundary line or in a border district. Some later reference works also treat March as a locational surname from places named March, such as the town in Cambridgeshire.
History
The name appears in English records in several places and was especially easy to generate independently wherever a borderland or place called March existed. Because the word was a common topographic term, the surname may have arisen more than once. It also overlaps with place-derived forms, so not every family named March necessarily shares the same origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old English *mearc* also gave us the modern word "mark" in the sense of a boundary or sign.
From the historical record
“MARCER = Mepcen, q.v. MARCH (Eng.) Dweller at a Boundary, Border, Frontier, Mark [M.E, marehe, p.E. m{e)arc\ Austyn at Caunterbury Cristnede the kyng, And thorugh miracles, as men now rede, Al tliat marehe he tornede To Crist and to cristendom; — Piers Plowman, 10513-17. March, Cambs, had the same spelling”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named March
- Fredric March (1897–1975)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.