Frequency: (212)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Norwegian: habitational name from any of four farmsteads so named. The origin of their name is not certain; it may be a compound of is ‘ice’ + land ‘land’ or from Island ‘Iceland’ (the name of the country).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
