Hard Family History

English: variant of Heard. Compare Hardman. English, German, Dutch, and Swedish (Hård): nickname for a stern or severe man from Middle English, Middle Low German hard, Middle Dutch hart, hert, Swedish hård ‘hard, inflexible’. The Swedish name was probably originally a soldier's name.

English: topographic name denoting a dweller on hard, firm ground from a transferred use of the adjective in 2 above or perhaps sometimes from a landing-place, as in the modern Hampshire use of the term hard. Compare Hardacre.

English: perhaps from a Middle English survival of an unrecorded Old English personal name Heard or else a borrowing of the ancient Germanic cognate Hardo. Both are from the adjective meaning ‘hard’, which was the basis of a number of Old English and ancient Germanic personal names like Harding and H(e)ardwin.