Friend Family History

English: nickname for a companionable person from Middle English frend frond ‘friend’ (Old English frēond). In the Middle Ages the term was also used to denote a relative or kinsman and the surname may also have been acquired by someone who belonged to the family of someone who was a more important figure in the community.

Eleventh-century evidence for the word also shows it in use as a personal name (independently as Frent 1086 in Essex and as the first element in the placename Frindsbury in Kent).

Americanized form (translation into English) of various European surnames meaning ‘friend’ for example of Jewish and German Freund, Dutch Vriend, and Slovenian Prijatelj.