This surname is derived from a nickname. 'le grand,' great, large. A sobriquet for one of big and broad proportions, a giant in size. This surname has ramified very strongly in Scotland.

Gregory le Grant, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

John le Graunt, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Richard le Graunt, Wiltshire, ibid.

Hamo le Graunt, Yorkshire, ibid.

William le Graunt, Berkshire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Ralph le Grant, Wiltshire, ibid.

Thomas Graunte, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1575. Married — Patricke Graunt and Jane Belgrave: St. Dionis Backchurch (London).

1648. — Samuell Grant and Sara Hower: St. Peter, Cornhill.

(a) Nick. 'the son of Grant.' No doubt the origin is the same. Either affixed to a very plump baby, or a sobriquet given later on to a very big boy, which sobriquet gradually ousted his baptismal name. School nicknames even now last for a lifetime.

Roger fil Grant, Salop, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Grant le Chapman, Devon, ibid.

Highland seannachies notwithstanding there is no doubt of the Norman origin of the Grants (i.e. of the chiefs) who were introduced into the North by the Bissets on their return from their exile of 1242. In England the Bissets and the Grants possessed adjoining lands in Nottinghamshire and were intermarried. In 1246 Henry III of England granted Lowdham to Walter Byset till he should recover his lands in Scotland. The adjacent manor of East Bridgeford was then held by William le Grant, husband of Alfreda Byset, the heiress (Stodart, II, p. 308). There was also a famous Norman family of Grants whose motto also was "Stand fast" (Tenons Ferme). The earliest reference to the name Grant connected with Scotland is that of Thomas Grant, merchant of the king of Scotland, who, on 2d of January 1252 was deposed from his office of visor of York Castle. The first Grants recorded in Scotland are Laurentius et Robertus dictus Grant, witnesses in 1258 to an instrument drawn up in the Bishop's Court at Inverness to enable John Byset, the younger, to give the church of Conveth to the Priory of Beauly (Beauly, p. 52—53; REM., p. 134—135). Sir Laurence was sheriff of Inverness and bailie of Inuerchoich in 1266 (ER., I, p. 36), and Robert, his brother, held land in Nairnshire. From the marriage of Laurence Grant with the heiress of the Glencharnich family the Grants date their real establishment in the North (Invernessiana, p. 30). The first Grant lands are Stratherrick, where they are found in the fourteenth century, and by the end of that century they are found in most of the later lands held by them. The surname remains preceded by le or the in the fifteenth and even in the sixteenth century (Stodart, II, p. 308). John le Graunt, a Scots prisoner from Dunbar, was warded in Gloucester Castle in 1297 and in the same year was freed on mainprise along with Ralph le Graunte (Bain, II, 938,940). Thomas le Graunt was plundered of his goods and chattels and one of his hands cut off by thieves maintained by Sir Duncan de Feringdraut in 1305 (ibid., 1735), and Maurice Grant was attorney for the provost of Inverness in 1330 and afterwards sheriff of the same town (ER., 1, p. 310,465). Richard Grant was prebendary of Assynt in 1394 (Pap. Pet., I, p. 572). The sixth laird of Freuchie was knighted by James VI, and his grandson had his lands erected into the regality of Grant. Some Achnachs ere said to have changed their name to Grant. Grantt 1828.

= Grand, q.v.

Richard le Grant.—Patent Rolls.

This Scottish name is numerous in all the A provinces except Connacht. It is an occasional synonym of Granny, q.v. MIF 281*

“Great” in Old French (Grand).

(English, French, Scottish) The large or fat man.

"Nothing certain is known regarding the origin of the Grants. They have been said to be of Danish, English, French, Norman, and of Gaelic extraction, but each of these suppositions depends for support on conjecture alone." Skene's Highlanders, ii. 254. The advocates of a Gaelic source adduce a tradition which makes them McGregors. Those who consider the name French, derive it from grand. On the first appearance of the family in Scotland, it is written "dictus Grant," afterwards "le Grant," and sometimes ridiculously "de Grant," for there was no ancient property so called. As to "le," that particle was prefixed by clerks to most Highland epithets, as well as to Norman. The name first occurs in charters in 1258. Ibid. p. 256. Other accounts of the name are given by Dixon, edit. 1855, where we meet with the following anecdote. "A was contrived to alter in the family Bible of a former laird of Grant, the words in Genesis, ' There were giants in those days,' into ' There were Grants in those days; ' and the good old chief believed it!"

Swarthy, grey headed. The family are descended from one of the Clan McGregor, named Gregory, dicti Grant, temp. Alexander III.

On this name Playfair remarks that it may be derived from the Saxon, Irish, or French. "In the Saxon, Grant signifies crooked or bowed. Thus Cambridge, the town and University in England so called, signifies a crooked bridge, or rather a bridge upon Cam River, or the crooked and winding river.

"The Saxons called this town Grant Bridge, Cam in the British, and Grant in the Saxon, being of the same signification, crooked.

"So Mons Gramphius, the Grampian Hill, was called by the Saxons Granz Ben, or the crooked hill, but we can not see how from this Saxon word the surname should be borrowed.Stolen from Fore-bears

"In the old Irish, Grandha signifies ugly, ill—favored. Grande signifies dark or swarthy. Grant and Ciar signify much the same thing, or are synonymous words, and there being a tribe of the Grants called Clan Chiaran, it is the same as Clan Grant. Thus the surname might have been taken from a progenitor that was Chiar or Grant, that is to say, a swarthy or gray—headed man, and, though, in time, Grant became the common and prevailing surname, yet some always retained the other name, Chiaran, and are called Clam Chiaran. In the French Grand signifies great, brave, valorous, and from thence many are inclined to think that the surname Grant is taken from Grand, which in the Irish is sounded short, and thereby the letter d at the end of the word is changed into t, and thus Grand into Grant. The surname, it seems, was thus understood in England about five hundred years ago, for Richard Grant was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1229, and is, in Mr. Anderson's Genealogical Tables, as well as by others, expressly called Richard Grant. But the English historians of that time, writing in Latin, call him Richardus Magnus, which plainly shows that they took Grant to be the same with the French Grand, and the Latin Magnus. To which let us add, that in the old writs, the article the is put before the surname Grant."

For English families of the name, see Grand; Scottish families of the name are Celtic.

Or Graunt (English), Great, Tall, Long. But it may in some cases be a local surname derived from the river Grant or Cam.

(Scotch) Griantach, or Sliabh Grianus, The heath of Grian or the Sun, in Strathspey, where there are many Druidical remains, is doubtless the place from which the clan Grant derived their appellation; and their crest, a burning mount, apparently has reference to the worship of Baal, after whom May Day is still called in Scotland Bealltainn, Baal's fire.

Graunt: from Le Grand. They may be traced back in Normandy till 985, but such pedigrees are suspicious, as the name is descriptive of height of stature, and was not a surname. There is no mention of a Grant in Domesday, unless that of Hugo Grando de Scoca, an under-tenant in Berkshire, be taken as one; but Grent de Everwick is found in the reign of Henry I. In the printed edition of Leland the name is Gaunt.

Grant is not always a name that hails from the Scotch side of the border. There are English Grants as well as Scotch Grants. To the former belong those of Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, Dorset, and Devon, who evidently are the present representatives of the numerous Le Graunts occurring in the 13th century in the counties of Oxford, Wilts, Lincoln, Notts, Norfolk, Essex, etc. (H. R.). The name of Grant occurred in Warwickshire in the reign of Richard III. (D.).