Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, Maltalent; Anglo Norman French, mautalent; Latin malum talentum), or it may be a locational reference to Mautalant, a place in Pontorson, France. The Brittany connection is less likely than that with Les Moitiers d'Allonne, near Carteret in the Cotentin. Mautalents continue to live in and near Les Moitiers d'Allonne, and the early mediaeval charters link the Maltalents of England and Scotland with the Morville family – originating from Morville, nr. Valonges, nearby, and Roger de Mowbray, whose family came from Aubigny, also nearby. The name gradually mutated to Mautalent and then Maitland, with the latter spelling appearing around 1250 and becoming settled in the late 14th century.
The earliest public record of the surname in Britain, after the Battle Abbey roll of 1066, dates to 1138 in Northumberland when Robert Maltalent witnessed a charter of Roger de Mowbray in Yorkshire.
People with this surname include:
- Adam Maitland (1885–1949) (UK politician)
- Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale (c. 1620–1691), Scottish judge
- Clover Maitland (b. 1972), Australian women's field hockey player
- Edward Maitland (1824–1897), English humanitarian writer
- Edward Maitland (aviator) (1880–1921), British military aviator
- Frank Maitland (1909–2001), British Communist propagandist
- Frederic William Maitland (1850–1906), English jurist and historian
- Frederick Lewis Maitland (Royal Navy captain) (1730–1786), captain in the Royal Navy
- Frederick Lewis Maitland (Royal Navy rear-admiral) (1777–1839), son of the above, Rear admiral in the Royal Navy
- Frederick Maitland (1763–1848), English General, Napoleonic era
- Henry Maitland Wilson (1881–1964), British Army general
- James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale (1759–1839), representative peer for Scotland in the House of Lords
- John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (1537–1595), Lord Chancellor of Scotland
- John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale (1616–1682), Scottish politician, and leader within the Cabal Ministry
- John Maitland (colonel) (1732–1779), British military officer
- John Maitland (Royal Navy officer) (1771–1836), Royal Navy admiral
- John Maitland (Conservative politician) (1903–1977), British politician in the Conservative party (Tory)
- John Alexander Fuller Maitland (1856–1936), British music critic and scholar
- Kier Maitland (born 1988), Canadian freestyle swimmer
- Lady Olga Maitland (born 1944), British politician
- Peregrine Maitland (1777–1854), British soldier and colonial administrator
- Richard Maitland (1496–1586), Scottish poet, Senator of the College of Justice, Ordinary Lord of Session
- Royal Maitland (1898–1946), Canadian politician in British Columbia
- Sara Maitland (born 1950), British writer
- Thomas Maitland (British Army officer) (1759–1824), British colonial governor and general
- Thomas Maitland, Lord Dundrennan (1792–1851), Scottish judge
- Thomas Maitland, 11th Earl of Lauderdale (1803–1878), British naval officer
- William Maitland of Lethington (1525–1573), 'Secretary Lethington' to Mary, Queen of Scots
- William Maitland (c.1693–1757), historian and topographer, History of London from Its Foundation to the Present Time