English: regional name from the district around Middlesbrough
named Cleveland ‘the land of the cliffs’, from the genitive plural
(clifa) of Old English clif ‘bank’, ‘slope’ +
land ‘land’. See also
Cleaveland.
Americanized spelling of Norwegian
Kleiveland or Kleveland, habitational names from any of
five farmsteads in Agder and Vestlandet named with Old Norse
kleif ‘rocky ascent’ or klefi ‘closet’ (an allusion to a
hollow land formation) + land ‘land’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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