The English surname Cleveland is a regional name from the district around Middlesbrough named Cleveland meaning “the land of the cliffs,” from the genitive plural  of the Old English term  clif meaning “ a bank or a slope’ and  land meaning “land.” The name is first recorded in 16th Century documents when John Cleveland is recorded at Filey, Yorkshire on April 20th 1572. The earliest record of the name in the New World occurs in 1640 when Moses Cleveland, born in Suffolk England, settled in Massachusetts. Today there are approximately 30,000 bearers of the name Cleveland living in the United States.