Saunders
A surname meaning “son of Alexander,” with Saunders and its many cousins all springing from the same ancient given name.
The #476 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 4,414 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Saunders is a patronymic surname built from the medieval pet form Saunder or Sander, short for Alexander. The ultimate root is Greek Alexandros, commonly understood as “defender of men.” In older records, the final -s marks “son of,” so Saunders literally means “Saunder’s son.”
History
The name appears widely in medieval and post-medieval Britain as one of several surname forms derived from Alexander. Historical sources also note an Irish Saunders family tradition placing an ancestor in England around the 13th century, though such claims are genealogical rather than firm etymology. Related forms include Sander, Sanders, Sanderson, and Saunderson.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Saunders and Sanderson are part of the same surname family as the much more familiar forename Alexander, just filtered through medieval nicknames and spelling shifts.
From the historical record
“SAUNDERS, Saunder's (Son). SAUNDERSON, Saunder's Son. SAVAGE (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Wild, Fierce [O.Fr. salvage (Fr. sauvage), Lat. silvaticus, be- longing to a forest, wild — silva, a forest] See Salvage. SAVARY \ (Fr.-Teut. ) the French Savary, SAVERY J O.Teut. Sabari<:(h, etc. = Mind-”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Saunders
- Jennifer Saunders (b. 1958)
- George Saunders (b. 1958)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.