Family name origins & meanings
- English (Yorkshire) : occupational name for a person responsible for looking after oxen and castrated horses, from Middle English geld ‘sterile’, ‘barren (animal)’ (Old Norse geldr) + herde ‘herdsman’, Old English hierde (see Heard).
- Dutch : habitational name from the Dutch province of Gelderland or from Geldern in northwestern Germany (see Geller 1).