Cleveland

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.

This was the surname of American president Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). It is also the name of an American city, which was founded by surveyor Moses Cleaveland (1754-1806).

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) and land "land".