Card Family History

English (Kent and Sussex): perhaps from Middle English carde ‘card’ an implement for teasing wool for spinning (from medieval Latin cardus) and therefore short for Carder or a metonymic occupational name for a maker of wool carders.

Alternatively from Middle English carde ‘playing card’ (Old French carte) also ‘kind of fabric’ (medieval Latin carda) which could have been a nickname given to a card player or a metonymic occupational name for maker and seller of the fabric.

Irish: shortened form of McCard.

French: from a shortened form of the personal name Ricardon a pet form of Richard.