Howard

This article is about the given name. For the surname, see Howard (surname). For other uses, see Howard (disambiguation).
Howard
PronunciationHAO-erd
GenderMale
Origin
Word/nameOld English, Old Norse
Other names
Related namesHowie, Ward

Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German *Hugihard "heart-brave", or *Hoh-ward, literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probably in some cases a confusion with the Old Norse cognate Haward (Hávarðr), which means "high guard", and as a surname also with the unrelated Hayward. In some rare cases it is from the Old English eowu hierde "ewe herd".[1][2] In Anglo-Norman the French digram -ou- was often rendered as -ow- such as tour → tower, flour (western variant form of fleur) → flower, etc. (with svarabakhti). A diminutive is "Howie" and its shortened form is "Ward" (most common in the 19th century). Between 1900 and 1960, Howard has ranked in the U.S. Top 200; between 1960 and 1990, it ranked in the U.S. Top 400; between 1990 and 2004, it ranked in the U.S. Top 600.[3] People with the given name Howard or its variants include:

  1. ^ "howard". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  2. ^ Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges: A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1988.
  3. ^ "Howard, name meaning and origin". Think Baby Names. Retrieved 2008-02-12.