Frequency: (1827)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: from the Old English personal name Hereweald, its Old Norse equivalent Haraldr, or the Continental form Herold introduced to Britain by the Normans. These all go back to a Germanic personal name composed of the elements heri, hari ‘army’ + wald ‘rule’, which is attested in Europe from an early date; the Roman historian Tacitus records a certain Cariovalda, chief of the Germanic tribe of the Batavi, as early as the 1st century AD.
2. English: occupational name for a herald, Middle English herau(l)d (Old French herau(l)t, from a Germanic compound of the same elements as above, used as a common noun).
3. German: from a personal name equivalent to 1.
4. Irish: this name is of direct Norse origin (see 1), but is also occasionally a variant of Harrell and Hurrell.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
