English form of Roland, from Germanic elements meaning 'famous land'.
Rowland is an Old High German name derived from "Hrodland," a compound of "hrod" (fame, glory) and "land" (territory, land), yielding the meaning "famous throughout the land." It is the older English spelling of what would become the more widely recognized Roland, and both forms trace their legendary pedigree to the heroic paladin of Charlemagne's court immortalized in the 12th-century French epic La Chanson de Roland. In that poem, Roland's death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass became one of medieval Europe's defining stories of loyalty, courage, and tragic sacrifice.
The name flourished in Norman England after the Conquest of 1066, when French-speaking nobles brought Roland — and its Anglicized variant Rowland — across the Channel. It appears in Shakespeare's As You Like It, where the beloved and virtuous Sir Rowland de Boys is the father whose legacy shadows the entire plot, lending the name an air of quiet nobility. Thomas Rowland was a 16th-century Welsh scholar; Rowland Hill, the Victorian postal reformer, revolutionized communication by inventing the penny post.
Rowland occupies a curious niche today: old enough to feel genuinely antique rather than merely vintage, yet with the familiar Roland close beside it for parents who want the richer texture of the historical spelling. Its two syllables roll cleanly off the tongue, and it wears equally well on a medieval knight and a modern child. In an era of revived surname-names and Anglo-Saxon revivals, Rowland has begun attracting renewed attention from parents drawn to its deep resonance and distinguished record.