Harder

Irish–Danish–German Heritage

People

Henry Frederick Harder was born in Germany, immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s, and lived in Iowa.

Relevant individuals:

Harders in modern Germany by telephone-directory entries (total 4,885)
Rank	Administrative district	Number of household entries
Source: Data from Absolute Verteilung des Namens “Harder” [Absolute Distribution of the Name “Harder”], ca. 2008, Verwandt.de, http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/harder.html [with color-coded map; site in German]. Note: Each telephone-directory entry may represent several individuals.
1	Hamburg [city state]	302
2	Rendsburg–Eckernförde [in Schleswig–Holstein]	233
3	Berlin [city state]	201

[Image: Germanic Gothic script; Text: Harder]

Harder is a German surname based variously on given names, location, or occupation.

Meaning of Harder
Meaning of surname	Source
Note: The German word Hart (or Hard) means “woods, forest” (Grimm & Grimm, 1854–1961).
1. [Northern Germany] from Harder or Herder (given names)	Bahlow 2002, Hanks 2013
2. [Northern Germany] from Harther (given name)	Kohlheim & Kohlheim 2005
3. from Hardt, Haardt, etc. (place names including the meaning “woods, forest”)	Bahlow 2002, Hanks 2013 (also from geographical feature), Kohlheim & Kohlheim 2005
4. forester	Jones 2006

Bahlow, Hans. 2002. Dictionary of German Names. 2nd ed. Trans. Edda Gentry. Madison, WI: Max Kade Institute for German–American Studies, University of Madison–Wisconsin, s.vv. “Harder, Harders” and “Herder.”
Jones, George Fenwick. 2006. German–American Names. 3rd ed. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., s.v. “Harder, Harders.”
Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. 1854–1961. Deutsches Wörterbuch [German Dictionary], 16 vols. in 32 parts. Leipzig, Germany: S. Hirzel, s.vv. “Hard,” http://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB?lemma=hard, and “Hart (noun),” http://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB?lemma=hart [site in German].
Hanks, Patrick, ed. 2013 [online]. Dictionary of American Family Names New York: Oxford University Press, s.v. “Harder,” http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=harder.
Kohlheim, Rosa, and Volker Kohlheim, eds. 2005. Duden Familiennamen: Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20 000 Nachnamen [Duden Family Names: Origin and Meaning of 20,000 Surnames]. Mannheim: Dudenverlag, s.vv. “Harder” and “Hardt.”