Sheldon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine first name of English origin, also used as a family name carried by many people
2. A personal name for a man, of English origin, that is also found as a surname in many families
3. Used as a male given name or family name, originating from English place names meaning a hill

Etymology: Sheldon is a surname and place name rather than a common word, and its story is one of English landscape. It combines Old English "scylf", meaning "shelf" in the sense of a ledge or flat projecting ground, with either "dūn", meaning "hill", or "denu", meaning "valley". A settlement sitting on a ledge of land beside a rise or a dip gave its name to the place, and people then took that place name as a family name. Because the element "scylf" referred to a physical shelf of ground rather than a piece of furniture, the name describes the lie of the land. Many English place names built this way survive in the Midlands and the South, and the surname spread from them as people began to be identified by where they came from.