267 Global HADLAND Family Members

HADLAND Family History

This uncommon name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname acquired in the first instance by someone who lived by a headland, or the upper end of an area of land. The name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "heafod", head, with "land", estate, district; "heafod" is used in many placenames in the transferred senses of "headland, summit, upper end", or "source of a stream". Topographical surnames, such as Hadland and its variant form Headland, were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages.