Sand Family History

English, Scottish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): topographic name for someone who lived on patch of sandy soil, from the vocabulary word sand. As a Swedish or Jewish name it was often purely ornamental. Dutch and Belgian: reduced form of Van den Sand(e), Van den Zande, a habitational name from places such as Zande in West Flanders or various minor places named with zand ‘sand’. English and Scottish: from a short form of Alexander. French: from a Germanic personal name, Sando.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press