This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the sands,' from residence thereby. Middle English sand or sond.

Walter atte Sond, bailiff of Yarmouth, 335: History of Norfolk.

Earl Sondes owns a large estate in Norfolk.

Johannes del Sandes, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Thomas del Sandes, 16 Richard II: Estates and Families of Cumberland, Cumberland.

Paulina atte Sonde, Close Rolls, 12 Henry IV.

Richard atte Sonde, Close Rolls, 8 Henry V.

1589. Henry Sandes, London: Register of the University of Oxford.

163.3. William Sandys and Cicily Steed: Marriage Lic. (Faculty Office)j.

From the lands of Sands in the parish of Tulliallan in Fife, which in 1494 were in possession of Thomas Sands and his mother, Isobel Hudson. John Sands was chaplain at Polkelly in 1487 (RMS., II, 1670), Thomas Sandis of that Ilk was tenant in the quarter lands of Lurg near Culross, 1587 (PSAS., LX, p. 83). Patrick Sands was one of the regents in the University of Edinburgh in 1589 and principal in 1620. Andrew Sandis was treasurer and master of work in Stirling in 1618 and bailie in 1624 (SBR., p. 287,288), and John Sands of that Ilk is in record in 1638 (Stodart, II). Sandis 1629 (Inquis., 49).

Numerically Sands (in that form) may now be regarded as predominantly an Oriel name, as such tests as birth registrations and voters' lists of Co. Armagh and adjacent areas will show. The most prominent family of the name, however, is Sandys of Co. Kerry, who claim descent from a Cromwellian officer, grantee of lands in that county about 1650, but the name was in Ireland about a century before that.

One Nevill Sands of Dublin was appointed surveyor-general in Ireland in 1565; William Sandes was deputy for the clerk of check in 1588 and another William Sandes was an attorney of the Exchequer Court in 1625. Of the 37 Irish-born students of Dublin University named Sandes (19) Sandys (16) and Sands (2) at least one-John Sands-was born in Co. Westmeath thirty years before the Cromwellian family was established in Kerry. Nearly all the nineteen called Sandes were born in Co. Kerry; the earliest of this spelling, born in 1671 in Queen's Co., was a relative of the Kerry family. The synonymous form Sandys belonged mainly to Dublin though it was also in Co. Roscommon: two were high-sheriffs of Co. Roscommon in 1682 and 1788, and one of Co. Longford in 1767. The many references to this name, in one of its three forms, which are to be found in a variety of Irish records from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century indicate that it was associated principally with Counties Kerry, Roscommon, Leix (Queen's Co.) and Dublin, but during the past two centuries Sands has become much more numerous than its variants-this may be due to immigration from Britain to Ulster but the name was certainly there three centuries ago since it appears then in the hearth money rolls for Tyrone and Antrim. The statement that Sandes is an anglicized form of O'Shaughnessy may be disregarded: this belief arose from the fact that a Shaughnessy of Co. Limerick, where the name is pronounced Shannesy, called himself Sandes; but his family reverted to their true name a generation later. The origin of the name, which has of course no connexion with O'Shaughnessy, is from the Old English sand and it denotes a dweller near the shore or a sandy place.

*This is not to be confused with Breadon and its variants Bredon and Breydon, which are formed from an English placename and were first made de Brdeon. This, I think, can be equated with the Bredan given in the 1659-60 “census” as a “principal Irish name" in the barony of Maryborough, Queen's Co.

(English) Dweller at the Sands [Old English sand, sand]

(English) One who came from Send (sandy place), in Surrey.

From residence on a sandy tract, whether near the sea or otherwise.

(Danish.) Sense, wit; or it may be from Sand, Sandy, a Scottish abbreviation of Alexander.

Shore: have furnished names to those dwelling by the sea.