Where the Richards name comes from

Richards is a patronymic surname, formed from the given name Richard with an added -s. The final -s follows the English pattern of naming a family after a parent. Richard itself is built from two Germanic elements: ric, meaning power, and hard, meaning brave or hardy.

Richards is also a Welsh and Cornish surname. In 1881 most people carrying it lived in Wales, Cornwall and the neighbouring counties of South-West England. By 1998 many of those families had moved into English cities, particularly the ones nearest to Wales and Cornwall.