JARDIN
The surname Jardin originates from France and derives from the French word “jardin”, meaning “garden”. It is therefore an occupational name applied to one who tended or owned a garden, but it was also used as a topographic surname for a person who lived near or owned a cultivated garden.
During the Middle Ages the term referred to a cultivator of edible produce in an orchard or kitchen garden, rather than to a gardener of ornamental lawns. The name entered England and Scotland following the Norman Conquest of 1066. It appears in England in the 1296 Sussex Subsidy Rolls under the form Matilda atte Jardin, and the earliest Scottish instance is that of Winfredus de Jardine, recorded as a charter witness in the Abbeys of Kelso and Arbroath c1150, during the reign of David I, King of Scotland.
Modern spellings include Jardin, Jardine, Jerdein, Jerdan and Jerdon. Other variations known from archival material are Gartin, Gerdin, Gardin, Jardes, Jarrin, Dardin, Jarrad and Jardell. In French-speaking regions the name is most common in Île-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Rhône-Alpes, and it is also widespread in Belgium, Luxembourg, Haiti and in the United States and Canada, where many bearers descend from French-Canadian immigrants of the 17th and 18th centuries.
A prominent bearer was James Jardine (1776–1858), an engineer who supervised the construction of the Union Canal and was the first to establish a mean sea level. A coat of arms was granted to a Jardine family of Edinburgh; it depicts on a white shield a red saltire bearing five gold discs, a red chief surmounted by three gold mullets, and the crest is a hand holding a bezant all proper. The family motto, “Ex virtute honos”, translates as “Honour from virtue”.
Due to the Latin root hortus meaning “garden”, the surname and its variants have been adopted into many Romance languages as well, yielding forms such as Jardim, Jardines or Jardón in Iberian contexts. These variations reflect the spread of the French word across Europe and its adaptation to differing linguistic traditions.
Typical given names associated with the Jardin surname
Male
- Andrew
- Anton
- Dennis
- Graeme
- Graham
- Ian
- John
- Jose
- Mark
- Scott
- William
Female
- Carole
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Emmanuelle
- Ivy
- Lorraine
- Maria
- Sophie
- Tracy
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Jardin in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 137 people named Jardin in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around two in a million people in Britain are named Jardin.
