From Old Norse 'kirkja' (church) and 'land,' meaning 'church land' or 'land near a church.'
Kirkland is a name of Old Norse and Old English heritage, a compound of 'kirkja' (church, from the Norse borrowing of Greek 'kyriakos,' meaning 'of the Lord') and 'land' (land, estate). As a place name, it designated land belonging to or surrounding a church — in an era when the church was the organizing institution of community life, 'kirkland' was a meaningful piece of the landscape. The name persists in numerous English and Scottish place names, most notably Kirkland in Cumbria and the city of Kirkland in Washington State, named after the English steel magnate who funded its founding.
As a surname, Kirkland was common in Scotland and the North of England, carried into America by Scots-Irish settlers. In American history, the name appeared in various forms — most significantly in the town of Clinton, New York, which borders Kirkland, the township named after Samuel Kirkland, an 18th-century missionary to the Oneida nation who founded Hamilton College. His legacy represents a complex chapter in the encounter between colonists and indigenous peoples, and his name was carried forward both geographically and personally by families who admired his educational mission.
In the late 20th century, Kirkland gained a peculiar new cultural layer as the name of Costco's ubiquitous private-label brand, which has paradoxically made the name simultaneously mundane and beloved to millions. For parents, Kirkland-as-given-name transcends this association, returning to its ecclesiastical and geographic roots — a name that means, in the most literal sense, holy ground.