Gold Family History

Jewish (Ashkenazic): artificial name from German Gold Yiddish gold ‘gold’. In North America it is often a shortened form of one of the many compound artificial names of which Gold is the first element.

English and German: from Middle English go(u)ld or Old English and Old High German gold ‘gold’ applied as a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in gold i.e. a refiner jeweler or gilder or as a nickname for someone who either had many gold possessions or bright yellow hair.

English: from an Old English personal name Golda (or the feminine Golde) which persisted into the Middle Ages as a personal name.

The name was in part a byname from gold ‘gold’ and in part a short form of various compound names with this first element.