Origin
RICHARD : (Sax.) Of a powerful, rich, or generous disposition, from ric, rich, and ard, nature or disposition.
BEVAN : (Welsh.) A contraction of Ap Evan, or Ivan, the son of John; from ap, son, or literally from, and Ivan, John. So Brice, from Ap Rice; Pritchard, from Ap Richard, etc.
BOWEN : (Welsh.) A corruption of Ap Owen, the son of Owen, so Price from Ap Rice, and Prichard from Ap Richard.
DICK : The familiar abbreviation of Richard. It may come from the Dutch Dyck, a bank or dike, a bulwark thrown up in the Low Countries against the sea or rivers to prevent inundation.
DICKENS : Dickings, the son of Dick or Richard.
DICKSON : The son of Dick or Richard.
DIX : The same as Dicks or Dickens, the s being a contraction of son the son of Dick or Richard.
FITZ GERALD : (Nor. Fr.) The son of Gerald, Fitz, a son, Gerald (Teutonic), all-surpassing, excellent. This ancient and honorable famlly is traced from Otho or Other, a Baron in Italy, descended from the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Walter, son of Otho, came into England with William the Conqueror, and afterward settled in Ireland. Maurice Fitz Gerald assisted Richard Strongbow in the conquest of that kingdom.
FOLLET : (Fr.) Frolicksome, merry, gay. Rightly named was Richard Folioth, Bishop of Hereford, who, when he had incurred the hatred of many for opposing himself against Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, one cried with a loud voice at his chamber window at midnight: 'Folioth, Folioth, thy god is the Goddess Azaroth' He suddenly and stoutly replied: ' Thou liest, foul fiend, my God is the God of Sabaoth. Camden.
FOLLIOT : (Fr.) Frolicksome, merry, gay. Rightly named was Richard Folioth, Bishop of Hereford, who, when he had incurred the hatred of many for opposing himself against Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, one cried with a loud voice at his chamber window at midnight: 'Folioth, Folioth, thy god is the Goddess Azaroth' He suddenly and stoutly replied: ' Thou liest, foul fiend, my God is the God of Sabaoth. Camden.
FORTESCUE : Strong shield. Sir Richard Le Forte (the brave), one of the leaders in the army of William the Conqueror, who had the good fortune to protect his chief at the battle of Hastings, by bearing before him a massive shield, hence acquired the addition of the French word escue, a shield, to his name.
GRANT : On this name Playfair remarks that it may be derived from the Saxon, Irish, or French. In the Saxon, Grant signifies crooked or bowed. Thus Cambridge, the town and University in England so called, signifies a crooked bridge, or rather a bridge upon Cam River, or the crooked and winding river. The Saxons called this town Grant Bridge, Cam in the British, and Grant in the Saxon, being of the same signification, crooked. So Mons Gramphius, the Grampian Hill, was called by the Saxons Granz Ben, or the crooked hill, but we can not see how from this Saxon word the surname should be borrowed. In the old Irish, Grandha signifies ugly, ill-favored. Grande signifies dark or swarthy. Grant and Ciar signify much the same thing, or are synonymous words, and there being a tribe of the Grants called Clan Chiaran, it is the same as Clan Grant Thus the surname might have been taken from a progenitor that was Chiar or Grant, that is to say, a swarthy or gray-headed man, and, though, in time, Grant became the common and prevailing surname, yet some always retained the other name, Chiaran, and are called Clan Chiaran. In the French Grand signifies great, brave, valorous, and from thence many are inclined to think that the surname Grant is taken from Grand, which in the Irish is sounded short, and thereby the letter d at the end of the word is changed into t, and thus Grand into Grant. The surname, it seems, was thus understood in England about five hundred years ago, for Richard Grant was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1229, and is, in Mr. Anderson's (Genealogical Tables, as well as by others, expressly called Richard Grant. But the English historians of that time, writing in Latin, call him Richardus Magnus, which plainly shows that they took Grant to be the same with the French Grand, and the Latin Magnus. To which let us add, that in the old writs, the article the is put before the surname Grant.
HATTON : Local. A town in Warwickshire, England. The town on the height; haut, Fr., high. Haughton, the town in the meadow or vale. Houdt-ton, Dutch, the town in the wood. Shortly after the Conquest, Hugh Montfort's second son, Richard, being Lord of Hatton in Warwickshire, took the name of Hatton.
LAWRENCE : Flourishing, spreading, from Laurus, the laurel-tree. Sir Robert Lawrence, of Ashton Hall, Lancashire, England, accompanied Richard I. to the Holy Land, 1191.
PRICHARD : (Welsh.) A contraction of Ap Richard, the son of Richard.
RECORD : The same as Rikerd, or Richard, of which it is a corruption, liberal-hearted, rich in disposition.
RICHARDSON : The son of Richard.
RICKETTS : A corruption of Ricards, from Richard (which see).
Origin of name provided by Jean Tosti
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