HOWARD. This noble historical name has been a sore puzzle to etymologists. See Eng. Surn. i. 133. A writer in the Quarterly Rev. vol. OIL says, the family " may be Saxon, may be Danish." They are more probablj' of Norwegian origin. Havard or Haavard was a common personal name among the Northmen. " It appears," says Laing, "to be the English name Howard, and left by them in Northumberland and East Auglia." Heimskringla. vol. i. p. 410, The seventeenth-century genealogists laboured hard to proAe a Norman origin for this illustrious race, but authentic VQcords extend back no farther than the XIII, cent., when the Howards rose into eminence in Norfolk ; (See Peerage,) though Houardus, the Essex under-tenant of Domesday may be cited on that side.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.