This rare name is a derived dialectal variant of the Old German pre 10th Century compound personal name "Volk-" meaning "people" and "hard", brave or strong. Perhaps not surprisingly this name was very popular particularly, with the Norman Invaders of England in 1066, who "adopted" it during their 9th Century campaigns which took them from their origin "Norse-lands" to their "Normandy" colony in France. There are many variant spellings, perhaps the most popular English being Folkard, recorded in England in 1100 A.D. (Pipe Rolls of Devonshire) as Robertus Folkland, whilst on the Continent Volkhard or Volkert has a similar popularity. Unfortunately "Continental" records are much more sparse than the United Kingdom. Recordings include Anna Volkert who married Andreas Carl on February 23rd 1734, at Meiningen, Germany. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Volkard, which was dated June 1st 1648, christened at Donaukreis, Rottenacker, Germany, during the reign of Emperor Ferdmand 111 of the Holy Roman Empire, 1637 - 1657. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.