Howard
| Pronunciation | HAO-erd |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Old English, Old Norse |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Howie, Ward |
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German *Hugihard "heart-brave", or *Hoh-ward, literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probably in some cases a confusion with the Old Norse cognate Haward (Hávarðr), which means "high guard", and as a surname also with the unrelated Hayward. In some rare cases it is from the Old English eowu hierde "ewe herd".[1][2] In Anglo-Norman the French digram -ou- was often rendered as -ow- such as tour → tower, flour (western variant form of fleur) → flower, etc. (with svarabakhti). A diminutive is "Howie" and its shortened form is "Ward" (most common in the 19th century). Between 1900 and 1960, Howard ranked in the U.S. Top 200; between 1960 and 1990, it ranked in the U.S. Top 400; between 1990 and 2004, it ranked in the U.S. Top 600.[3] People with the given name Howard or its variants include:
Given name[edit]
- Howard Allen (1949–2020), American serial killer
- Howard Duane Allman (1946–1971), American guitar virtuoso
- Howard Anderson (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Andrew (1934–2021), American poker player
- Howard Ashman (1950–1991), American lyricist known for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast
- Howard Baker (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Bragman (1956–2023), American crisis manager and publicist
- Howard W. Brill (born 1943), chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court
- Howard Burnett (athlete) (born 1961), Jamaican track and field athlete
- Howard J. Burnett (1929–2019), American president of Washington & Jefferson College
- Howard Carpendale (born 1946), German singer
- Howard Carter (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Y T Cheng (born 1981), champion apprentice in Hong Kong
- Howard Cosell (1918–1995), sports broadcaster
- Howard Ward Cunningham (born 1949), American founder of WikiWikiWeb
- Howard David, American sportscaster
- Howard Davies (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Davis (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Dean (born 1948), American politician
- Howard Donald (born 1968), English singer
- Howard Devoto (born Howard Trafford, 1952), English singer-songwriter
- Howard Duff (1913–1990), American actor
- Howard Eastman (born 1970), Guyanese-British boxer
- Howard Ehmke (1894–1959), American baseball pitcher
- Howard Eisenberg (born 1926), American author and journalist
- Howard Eisley (born 1972), American basketball player and coach
- Howard Engel (1931–2019), Canadian mystery writer
- Howard Eskin (born 1951), American sports radio personality
- Howard Evans (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Goodall (born 1958), British musician, musicologist and TV presenter
- Howard Grant (boxer) (born 1966), Jamaican-Canadian boxer
- Howard Hawks (1896–1977), American producer
- Howard Hesseman (1940–2022), American actor
- Howard Hotson, British historian
- Howard A. Howe (1901–1976), American virologist
- Howard Hughes (1905–1976), American aviation pioneer and film mogul
- Howard Jacobson (born 1942), British novelist and journalist
- Howard Johnson (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Jones (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Judd (1935–2007), American physician and medical researcher
- Howard Keel (1919–2004), singer and actor born Harry Keel
- Howard Kendall, English football player and manager
- Howard Andrew Knox (1885–1949), American physician
- Howard Lassoff (1955–2013), American-Israeli basketball player
- Howard Lederer (born 1964), professional poker player
- Howard Lesnick (1931–2020), American, Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Howard Long (1905–1939), American convicted murderer
- H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), American writer (full name Howard Phillips Lovecraft)
- Howard Hamilton Mackey (1901–1987), American architect, educator
- Howard McNear (1905–1969), American radio and television actor
- Howard Marks (1945–2016), teacher, drug smuggler and author
- Howard Matthews (1885–1963), English footballer
- Howard W. Mattson (1927–1998), American chemist and journalist
- Howard T. Odum (1924–2002), American ecologist
- Howard Allen O'Brien, birth name of American writer Anne Rice
- Howard Payne (athlete) (1931–1992), English hammer thrower
- Howard Schatz, American fine art photographer
- Howard Shore (born 1946), Canadian composer
- Howard Smalley (born 1942), New Zealand cricketer
- Howard Smith (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Smothers (born 1973), American football player
- Howard Spira, American gambler who was paid by George Steinbrenner to find dirt on baseball player Dave Winfield
- Howard Stableford (born 1959), British television and radio presenter
- Howard Staunton (1810–1874), British chess player and Shakespearean scholar
- Howard Stern (born 1954), American talk-radio host
- Howard K. Stern (born 1968), attorney for Anna Nicole Smith
- Howard Stidham (born 1954), American football player
- Howard Stupp (born 1955), Canadian Olympic wrestler
- Howard Tayler (born 1968), American cartoonist
- Howard Turner (1897–1976), American football player
- Howard Unruh (1921–2009), American spree killer
- Howard Wales (1943–2020), American musician
- Howard Walker (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Walter (1883–1918), American Congregationalist minister and hymnist
- Howard Washington (born 1998), American-Canadian basketball player
- Howard Watt (1911–2005), South African rugby union player
- Howard Watts III (born 1987), American politician
- Howard Wilkinson (born 1943), English football manager
- Howard Williams (disambiguation), name of several people
- Howard Wilson (American football) (born 1995), American football player
- Howard Wilson (physicist), British physicist
- Howard Zinn (1922–2010), American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist
Howie[edit]
- Howie B (born 1963), Scottish musician and producer Howard Bernstein
- Howie Carr (born 1952), American journalist
- Howie Day (born 1981), American singer-songwriter
- Howie Dorough (born 1973), American musician with Backstreet Boys
- Howie Epstein (1955–2003), American musician
- Howie Gordon (later known as Richard Pacheco), American pornographic actor
- Howie Hawkins, American politician and activist
- Howie Long (born 1960), American former football player and actor
- Howie Mandel (born 1955), Canadian comedian and actor, host of the TV show Deal or No Deal
- Howie Meeker (1923–2020), Canadian hockey player, TV sports announcer, Member of Parliament
- Howie Morenz (1902–1937), Canadian ice hockey player
- Howie Nave (born 1956), American comedian, radio personality, writer, promoter and movie critic
- Howie Rose (born 1954), American sportscaster
- Howie Severino (born 1961), Filipino broadcast journalist
- Howie Winter (1929–2020), American mobster
Fictional characters[edit]
- Howard Bellamy (Doctors), in the British soap opera Doctors
- Howard Clifford, a fictional villain in the Detective Pikachu movie
- Howard Cunningham (Happy Days), in the TV series Happy Days
- Howard DeVille, in the animated series Rugrats
- Howard Hamlin, a fictional character on the AMC television series Better Call Saul
- Howard Huge, a comic strip dog
- Howard Hunter, in the TV series Hill Street Blues, played by James B. Sikking
- Howard Langston, in the 1996 film Jingle All the Way
- Howard McBride, in the animated series The Loud House
- Howard McGreggor, in the TV series Fresh Meat (TV series)
- Howard Moon, in the TV series The Mighty Boosh, portrayed by Julian Barratt
- Howard Nichols, a character in the 1981 American made-for-television movie Fallen Angel
- Howard Roark, protagonist of Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead
- Howard Stark, father of Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Howard Wolowitz, a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Simon Helberg.
- Howard the Duck, a comic book character
- Howard Link, a "Crow" and Inspector for the Black Order in the anime/manga D. Gray Man
- Howard Marner, a fictional character from Short Circuit (1986 film)
- Howard Silk, main character and agent in the TV series Counterpart (TV series)
References[edit]
- ^ "howard". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges: A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1988.
- ^ "Howard, name meaning and origin". Think Baby Names. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
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