KIRKLAND
Kirkland is a surname of English, Norse and Scottish heritage. The name is locational in origin, belonging to the 12th‑century tradition of identifying individuals by the land on which they dwelt or owned.
The etymology of Kirkland combines the Old Norse term kirkja meaning “church” with the Old English word land meaning “land”. Consequently the literal meaning of the surname is “church land” or “land belonging to the church”. This construction is analogous to other Germanic place‑names that associate a civic or ecclesiastical institution with the territory it occupied.
The surname was first recorded in the late 12th century. The earliest known spelling is that of Michael de Kerkeland, dated 1196, in the Pipe Rolls for Cumberland during the reign of King Richard I, known as Richard the Lionheart. Other early attestations include John de Kyrkeland, who held land in the vicinity of Gordon about 1280 as mentioned in the Register of the Abbey of Kelso, Scotland, and William de Kyrkland, burgess of Glasgow, documented in 1424.
The name is geographically linked to several places named Kirkland in the British Isles. Locations in Cumberland, Ayrshire, Dumfrieshire and Lanarkshire in Scotland, as well as a district in Lancashire where the second element is the Old Norse lund meaning “grove”, constitute the primary source of the surname’s locational character. It was originally awarded either as a topographical name to a resident of church land or as a locational name from any of these settlements.
Variant spellings of the surname have appeared in historical records, including Kirtland and Kirtlan. Such orthographic variations reflect the medieval practice of spelling surnames phonetically or according to local dialects.
A noteworthy bearer of the name is Thomas Kirkland (1722–1798), M.D. of St. Andrews, who held memberships in the Royal Medical Societies of Edinburgh and London. His career illustrates the integration of the Kirkland surname into professional and scholarly circles of the eighteenth century.
In contemporary usage, Kirkland remains a surname of modest frequency within the United Kingdom and the wider diaspora of the British Isles. Its bearers continue to be identified by an inherited connection to the historic church land of their ancestors, a link that has survived into the modern era.
Typical given names associated with the Kirkland surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- Ian
- James
- John
- Michael
- Paul
- Robert
- William
Female
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Janet
- Jean
- Joanne
- Karen
- Kathleen
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Mary
- Nicola
- Sarah
- Susan
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 Kirkland in...
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There are approximately 4,077 people named Kirkland in the UK. That makes it roughly the 2,289th most common surname in Britain. Around 63 in a million people in Britain are named Kirkland.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Kirkland
- Chris Kirkland - Football player
- Dennis Kirkland - Television Producer (1942 to 2006)
- Jesse Kirkland - Sailor
- Zander Kirkland - Sailor
- Jim Kirkland - Football player
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.