Rowland Name Origin

There is not a single origin for the Rowland/Roland (and other variants) surname. Instead, the surname was independently created by multiple groups, at different times, in different parts of the world. See Origin of the Rowland Surname.

The First Rowland was Roland

Most historians (and genealogists) agree the name Roland first appeared more than 1,200 years ago. Roland, the Paladin Warrior and nephew of Charlemagne, was born in 736 and died on 15 Aug 778 at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. The battle is recounted in the 11th century The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature.

The Normans used Roland as a personal name. Roland is composed of the Germanic elements hrod/hruod ‘renown’ + land ‘land’, ‘territory’ (or + -nand ‘bold’, assimilated to -lant ‘land’). Translation: “fame of the land.”

However, surnames were not in use at that time. Roland was a given name, and we do not know why his parents called him Roland. As the story of Roland and his heroic actions spread, so did the use of Roland as a given name.

The Normans brought the name to England, where the “w” began to appear. Additionally, after being conquered by the Normans, the surname usage began to spread through England and they were in common use by 1400.

What the DNA Tells Us

The Rowland DNA Project has identified numerous genealogically distinct Rowland DNA Groups (more than 15 as of 2022). Although they all have a common ancestor that lived more than 47,000 years ago, the Rowland Haplotree shows that each line has been distinct since 1500 BCE (or earlier).

Members of the Rowland Project opting into Big Y-700 testing have discovered they are more closely related to people with different surnames than they are to the other Rowland DNA Groups. The recent introduction of the Big Y Time Time Tree helps us visualize this phenomenon. While two Rowland lines may have had a common ancestor in the Bronze Age, their descendants went separate ways. For the next 3,000 or 4,000 years, more than 10,000 generations, these lines propagated and advanced through the Iron Age and Medieval times. As surnames became the “law of the land,” primarily for taxation purposes, families had to choose or adopt a surname.

Each Rowland line did this independently of the other. Today, we know that one line adopted the surnames of Griffith, Williams, Rowland (DNA Group B), and others. Another line adopted the surnames of Sedgewick, Rowland (DNA Group M), and others. Although members of these two genetic lines have the surname of Rowland, their common ancestor lived about 19,600 BCE (haplogroup R-M173).

Coincidence?

Doubters may claim there is no way that this many families could select the same surname independently. However, let’s look at the process. Before surnames, means of identification often included your ancestry, location, or occupation.

Ancestry example: We already established that Roland/Rowland was a popular given name. The children of Rowland would often be known as John, son of Rowland and his brother Thomas, son of Rowland. When surnames came about, they could have easily become John and Thomas Rowlandson, eventually shortened to Rowlands, and often then dropping the ‘s’ at the end. This method of surname adoption easily explains the popularity of Johnson, Williams, Thomson, and similar surnames.

Location example: There is a parish in Derbyshire named Rowland. Some of the earliest known documents from there refer to a man called Roland of Rowland. Over the subsequent couple of hundred years, his descendants all used the surname of Rowland (DNA Group G). There’s a place called Rowland in Norway, which might possibly be another surname origin. The name being derived from the Old Norse “ra”, roebuck, and “lundr”, wood, grove; thus, “wood of the roebuck”. Yet another example is that of a castle built more than 1100 years ago on the border of what is now Hampshire and Sussex counties of England. Known as Rowland’s Castle, it’s not hard to imagine some families in those counties selecting Rowland (DNA Group O) as a surname.

Occupation example: We are not aware of Rowland being used as an occupation derivative, although as a kid I liked to think that maybe it meant a farmer (one who rows/plows the land) or a ferryman (one who rows the boat to land). Meanwhile, Baker, Taylor, Tanner, and Smith are examples of occupation-based surnames.

The View From 1893

The following is taken verbatim from “A Genealogical Sketch of The Posterity of John Rowland of Rhosybayvil“, written in 1893.

The name of Roland, or in its anglicized form Rowland, first appears in the eighth century, and means ” Fame of the Land.” The first to bear the name was Roland, a nephew, and one of the twelve peers, of Charlemagne. The knightly deeds and exploits of Roland, many of which are fabulous and ridiculous, form the subject and theme of fiction during the whole age of chivalry. Ariosto based his poem of Orlando Furioso upon the life and adventures of this valiant knight. Roland and Oliver are two names frequently associated in the literature of early romance and quixotic adventure.

Among the names brought into England by the Normans at the time of the Conquest, A.D. 1066, was that of Roland or Rowland. It has come down to us both as a favorite Christian name and, also, as a surname. The various forms in which it appears in English literature are as follows: Orlando, Roland, Rowland, Rowlands, Rowlandson, Rowlet being a feminine form of Rowland, as Charlotte is of the name Charles. It is always correctly pronounced Roland, and should never have the short o, as in not, odd, etc. The mispronunciation Rowland, often heard in New England, is a provincialism, which even semi-occasional good usage in that locality has failed to render acceptable, except to the illiterate.

This name appears frequently in English literature. Shakespeare, quoting from the fragment of an old Scottish ballad, says, “Childe Rowland to the dark tower came.” Again he uses this name in “As You Like It,” wherein he designates one of his characters as Sir Rowland de Bois. The name also occurs in Sir Walter Scott’s Novels and in other English authors.

It is found throughout Great Britain in its various forms. The Normans made their way into Wales at the time of the Conquest, which may partially account for the existence of this and many other Norman surnames in that country.