Harding surname meaning

Harding is an English surname from the Middle English personal name Harding, Old English Hearding—“the hard one,” from heard, “hard, harsh, strong, firm, brave.” English families carried the name to Ireland from the fifteenth century, with later Tipperary settlements. North German and Dutch Harding can be a patronymic from short forms of hard- compound names or a farm name of the same root. Hardinge and Hardin are related spellings. Parent’s name is high confidence for the English Hearding stream that dominates dictionary treatments of the surname.