Our name

Story number one

“Cridland”, or “Credland”, means a chalky area of land. Evidence for this comes from J. Stephen Cridland of South Africa, who points out that ‘krit’ means chalk in various Germanic languages, including Saxon. Geoffrey Heal points out that the Cridland heartland is West Somerset, where the underlying rock is mainly red sandstone; however, Stephen says, the downs on the border of Somerset and Devon are very chalky. The records, he argues, don’t go as far back as the name, and it could well be that the Cridlands could have farmed on the south central chalk downs, and then migrated.

Story number two

It comes from the Nordic name of Krid. During the many wars England encountered, mercenaries were used to fight in various battles. When the money pot was empty, land was bestowed on the soldiers instead of gold payment. Those people who were born (slaves) on the land of Krid used the surname of Kridland. As time went on the K was dropped in favour of using C in the English language. Geoffrey Heal says that there is no proof for this; indeed, it’s ‘romantic fiction’.

Story number three

There was a Lieutenant Krid in William the Conquerer’s army, which invaded England in 1066. After the invasion, all William’s officers were given land grants. Lieut. Krid recieved a farming estate in Somerset which became known as the land of the Krids. Geoffrey Heal is similarly dismissive of this story. While, again, a nice story, this has no solid evidence, and probably comes from ‘parchment’ histories supplied by commercial firms, who are not always trustworthy.

Corruptions

Corruptions of our family name are Cridlan, Cridlin, Credland and Credlin; there is a possibility that Cridling may be a variant, but the evidence so far ‘suggests otherwise’, according to Geoffrey Heal.

Some commercial firms claim that corruptions include Quinlan, Quiglan, and Creighton – there is no evidence for this. Similarly, some claim that Criddle and Cridland are related. Well, yes, kind of – there has been one Cridland-Criddle marriage, but except for that, Geoffrey reports that, sorry, there’s no connection; they’re definitely two separate families.

Popularity

In the UK, Cridland is the 6,417th most popular last name in the UK, according to the 1998 UK census. In comparison with the 1881 census, it’s got slightly more popular, moving up 434 places in the rankings.

In the US, Cridland is the 57,837th most popular last name in the US, according to the 1990 US census.

Distribution

Interesting maps show the Cridland family centred around Bristol in 1881, while being much more spread around South Wales and the South of England in 1998.

Thanks to Amy, Allan, Colin and Stephen Cridland for their contributions to this page, and for Geoffrey Heal’s input.