A male name. Old German Hrodland, compound of hrothi ‘fame’ and landa ‘land’. As the name of the most famous of the peers of Charlemagne, Roland was a favourite in the Middle Ages and was introduced into England by the Normans (Rolland occurs in Domesday Book), the usual English form of the name being Rouland or Rowland. Rowland was, indeed, the usual spelling in the 17th and 18th C, and the modern Roland is a piece of archaizing.

Rolland Domesday Book 1086. Rolandus Curia Regis Rolls 1186-1220, Feudal Aids 1316, 1428. Rouland Testa de Neville, or Book of Fees, temp. Hen. III-Edw. I 13th C. Rowland Lincs 1529, Lyford 1655.

The first element is that of Robert, Roderic(k), Rodolph, and Roger; the second, the general Teutonic radical, land: the whole, therefore, is ‘(one who is—or is hoped to be the) fame of the land.’ A certain prefect slain at Roncesvalles in the days of Charlemagne was called Rotolando, a punning name ‘from his rolling himself on the ground’ (Yonge) or ‘Rotlandus’ (Swan): from his name and fame there have been evolved those of Roland and the Chanson de Roland. The Spanish Roldan and the Italian Orlando are the same person: a fact obvious only to students of language, for they are conversant with the almost innumerable metatheses of words; the transposition here is a frequent one.

Derived from the old Francic name, signifying ‘illustrious countryman.’ from the Anglo Saxon rof illustrious, and land. Camden derives it from the Anglo Saxon rod counsel, and land, q. d. counsellor to his country. By metathesis we have the Italian name Orlando.

Teutonic (masculine) - Saviour of his country (?).

A Teutonic name, meaning: Fame of the land: having a famous land.