Harding

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• English (mainly southern England and South Wales) and Irish : from the Old English personal name Hearding, originally a patronymic from Hard 1. The surname was first taken to Ireland in the 15th century, and more families of the name settled there 200 years later in Tipperary and surrounding counties.
• North German and Dutch : patronymic from a short form of any of the various Germanic compound personal names beginning with hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.
• Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865–1923), the 29th president of the U.S., was born on a farm in OH, of English and Scottish stock on his father’s side. Early American bearers of this very common name include Joseph Harding who died at Plymouth in 1633. His great-great grandson Seth was a naval officer during the American Revolution.