Occupation Names: A Labor Day Salute

With Labor Day upon us, it seems like the perfect moment to focus on the original pre-barbecue meaning of the holiday and celebrate hard-working occupational names.  So we’re looking back to wtoe we wrote on the subject in our book Beyond Ava & Aiden, but here focusing on the less used, fresher sounding examples, and those with less obvious meanings, so no Archer, Shepherd or Baker.

Have you noticed how many of the boys’ names climbing up the ladder end in the letters ‘er’? They sound really new and cool, but in reality a large proportion of them actually originated in medieval England as occupational surnames, when Timothy the Tanner morphed into Timothy Tanner—as if in our day Pete the Programmer became Pete Programmer. And even if a large proportion of these are trades that no longer exist in this Digital Age, and some of their meanings have been lost to time, part of their appeal as a group lies in their throwback reference to basic concepts of honest labor, adding some historical heft to their appeal, and giving them more weight than other fashionable two-syllable names.  They offer the parents of boy babies a comfortable middle ground between the sharper-edged single syllable names (Holt, Colt), and the more ornate longer names (Gregory, Jeremy) of the recent past.  Here are some of the most usable ones, together with their original, sometimes arcane, meanings.

The er-ending names

• Banner– flag bearer
• Barker –stripper of bark from trees for tanning
• Baxter– a baker, usually female
• Beamer — trumpet player
• Booker — scribe
• Boyer — bow maker, cattle herder
• Brenner — charcoal burner
• Brewster — brewer of beer
• Bridger — builder of bridges  
• Carter — cart maker or driver, transporter of goods
• Carver — sculptor
• Chandler — candle maker
• Chaucer — maker of breeches, boots or leg armor
• Collier — charcoal seller, coal miner
• Conner — inspector
• Cooper — wooden barrel maker
• Coster — fruit grower or seller
• Currier — leather finisher
• Cutler — knife maker
• Decker — roofer
• Dexter — dyer
• Draper — woolen cloth maker or seller
• Duffer — peddler
• Farrier– iron worker
• Fletcher — arrow maker
• Forester — gamekeeper, forest warden
• Foster — sheep shearer
• Fowler — hunter of wild birds
• Glover — maker or seller of gloves
• Granger — granary worker
• Harper —  harp maker or player
• Hollister — female brothel keeper!!
• Hooper —  one who makes or fits hoops for barrels
• Hopper — dancer, acrobat
• Hunter — huntsman
• Jagger — a Yorkshire name meaning peddler or carrier
• Keeler — boatman or barge builder
• Kiefer — barrel maker or overseer of a wine cellar
• Lander — launderer
• Lardner — servant in charge of the larder
• Lorimer — a spur maker
• Mercer — merchant, especially in luxury fabrics
• Miller — grinder of corn
• Nayler — maker of nails
• Parker — gamekeeper in a medieval private park
• Porter — gate keeper, carrier of goods
• Potter — maker or seller of earthenware pottery
• Quiller — scribe
• Ranger — game warden
• Rider/Ryder — cavalryman, horseman, messenger
• Sadler– saddle maker
• Salter — worker in or seller of salter
• Sayer –several meanings:  assayer of metal, food taster, woodcutter (as in Sawyer)
• Slater — roofer
• Sumner — court summoner
• Thatcher — roofer
• Tolliver — metal worker (Anglicization of the italian Taliaferro)
• Turner — turner of wood on a lathe
• Webster — weaver, originally female
• Wheeler– wheel maker

 Other occupational names

• Baird– minstrel or poet  
• Beaman– beekeeper
• Chaplin– clergyman
• Farrar– blacksmith, metalworker
• Fisk– fisherman
• Reeve– bailiff, chief magistrate
• Smith– metal worker, blacksmith
• Steele– a steel worker
• Todd– a fox hunter
• Travis– gate keeper, toll collector
• Ward– watchman, guard
• Wright– carpenter, joiner