Pollard - is this a Cornish name?

[samhuzz]

Hello

My grandad was a Pollard and his family came from Cornwall. Just wondered if Pollard is a Cornish surname?

Thanks

Sam

[suemalings]

I did a general search for Pollard on the census returns, just out of interest,to look at the birth places.

I found births in London, Durham, Lancashire, Wiltshire, Surrey, Cornwall, Northamptonshire, Dorset, etc etc......

Of course this doesn't mean that it isn't a Cornish name. Have you done any research to find out where your ancestors were born and lived?

[suemalings]

Just found your other thread

[Peter Goodey]

According to Archer's Surname Atlas, the top five counties are (based on the 1881 census) -

ID County Actual per 100,000

31 Rutland 34 159
6 Cornwall 516 156
36 Sussex 519 106
45 Yorks W.Riding 2063 95
22 Leicestershire 304 94

This system doesn't seem to accept tabs for formatting so you'll have to mentally add tabs to make the table look right

There are standard reference books on surname origins. It may be worth checking what your library service can offer.

[samhuzz]

That's funny that Leicestershire and Cornwall came in the top 5 Peter, as mine moved from Cornwall to Leicestershire!

Thanks very much

Sam

[Peter Goodey]

mine moved from Cornwall to Leicestershire!

So they were the people responsible!

[samhuzz]

They had enough children between them so quite possibly!

[brentor boy]

There is an old saying - "By Tre, Pol and Pen you will know Cornish men", implying that names starting with these syllables are of Cornish origin.

[MarkJ]

Tre = homestead or farm
Pol = pool
Pen = head

So yes, those 3 are common in Cornish surnames. However, many Cornish surnames - including my own - do not have those three prefixes.

Whether Pollard is Cornish, I am not convinced one way or the other. There is a verb in English "to pollard" for example and a noun too.
I have seen the derivation related to the first name Paul, which would suggest it is more English than Cornish I suspect.
Whilst there are Pollards in Cornwall, I don't think it is a particularly common Surname here.

Mark

[Graham L]

I always thought the verb - to pollard meant cutting back trees to promote growth or encourage the growth of long thin branches to be used as poles. If the names comes from 'one who pollards' trees then I would think it would be pretty generic and not limited to any specific area.

The Internet Surname Database says that the word comes from the Middle English word "poll" meaning "the head" plus the intensive suffix "-ard" suggesting a nickname of someone with a close cropped head -
"The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Pollard, which was dated 1181, in the "Pipe Rolls of Surrey", during the reign of King Henry II"