Smart
An English surname first used as a nickname for a quick, lively, or brisk person.
The #1,388 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,094 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Smart comes from Middle English smart, smert, meaning quick, brisk, or sharp. The word is usually traced to Old English smearte, with the sense of stinging, sharp, or painful, which later broadened into the idea of quickness and alertness. As a surname, it was probably first applied as a nickname to someone known for being nimble or energetic.
History
19th-century surname writers treated Smart as a straightforward nickname surname, and examples appear in medieval records as Smart, Smert, and related spellings. Some early writers also suggested it may have begun as a personal name in Anglo-Saxon times, but the nickname explanation is the safer modern view. The surname is well established in England and later spread through the English-speaking world, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley glossed Smart as “the brisk,” showing how directly medieval bynames could describe a person’s temperament or manner.
From the historical record
“Narrow Clearing [O.N. smal-r + ]'ueii] SMART "I (Eng.) Quick, Sharp [M.E. SMARTT J smart{e,smert{e,shaTp, quick, pain- ful ; O.E. smeari] SMEATH (Eng.) i Smooth, Polished, Suave [M.E. smeth{e, O.E. smdj-e] Philip le Smethe.-^iy«Krf. Rolls. 2 Dweller at a Plain or Level Field [same etym.] (occ.) 3 for Smith, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)