Meaning: (Defender of the Temple, from
Old English Æ {dh} elmund, ‘Noble Protection’, variant of Allman ‘German’,
assimilated by folk etymology to the vocabulary word denoting the tree. This
interesting and unusual surname is of Old French and Anglo-Saxon origin, and
has two possible sources. Firstly, it may be from the English name for someone
from
Germany, derived from
the Anglo-Norman French "aleman", German, or "alemayne",
Germany, from
the Late Latin "Alemannus" and "Alemannia", from a Germanic
tribal name, probably meaning simply "all the men". In some cases the
reference may have been to the Norman region of Allemagne, to the south of
Caen, which was probably
so named from Germanic settlers there.
The second source is from the Olde English pre 7th Century
personal name "Athelmund", composed of the elements
"athel", noble, and "mund", protection. There is no
evidence of any connection with the almond nut or tree. The personal name was
first recorded as "Almund" and "Ailmundus" in the Domesday
Book of 1086, and the surname was first recorded in the late 13th Century (see
below). William and Awdry (as written) Almond were some of the earliest
settlers in the New World, leaving London on the
"Abigall" in June 1635, bound for New England.
The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas
Ailmun, which was dated 1279, in the "Hundred Rolls of
Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The
Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when
governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax.
Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to
"develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original
spelling.)
Origin: (Anglo-Saxon, Middle
English, Old English, German, Nordic, Old Swedish)
Pronunciation: (AOL-MahND, AHL-muhnd)
Gender: Uni-Sex
I was looking at names and somehow
I saw this as a name. I mean Almond I think the nut but Almund does look kind
of cool and doesn’t make me think nut. The meanings are pretty strong and it has
a pretty long history of use as well. I think this would be a cool surname or
first name if used right. I would think it cool to see a character named this.
It would give a rare unique charm to the character and would be amazing to see
how an author would make it fit so right.
Just this month I used Almund as
the surname of my main character in one of my short stories. The first name of
my main character is Sawa and is on my list to be added in a few months. As for
Almund I thought it went well with Sawa and seemed to balance the unique
looking name Sawa with a more common last name, plus the last name goes well to
describe her job and heritage.
