Origin
Chamberlain : English: status name from Old French chambrelain Norman French cambrelanc cambrelen(c) ‘chamberlain’ (of ancient Germanic origin from kamer ‘chamber room’ Latin camera (see Chambers) + the diminutive suffix -(l)ing). This was originally the name of an official in charge of the private chambers of his master but is so widespread in late medieval England that it must sometimes have been used of people of more ordinary status perhaps as a nickname for an officious or self-important person or for someone who played the role of chamberlain in a folk play tableau or ceremony. Compare Chancellor for a possible similar usage.
Chambers : English:: 1: from Middle English chaumbre ‘room (in a house); reception room in a palace or official building’ (Old French chambre). It is identical in implied function with the Chamberlain which denoted an official: to pay in cameram was to pay into the exchequer of which the camerarius or chamberer was in charge. The surname also applied to clerks employed there. As the office of Chamberlain rose in the social scale this term remained reserved for more humble servants of the bedchamber or private quarters.2: (of Norman origin): habitational name from Les Chambres Manche (France).
Disher : 1: Americanized form of German Discher ‘joiner’.2: English and Scottish: occupational name for a maker or seller of dishes (Middle English disher(e)) from an agent derivative of Middle English dish diss disc ‘dish’. In London dishers (also known as turnours) were makers of wooden measures for wine and ale. Each disher had his own mark which was stamped on the bottom of each measure he made. Samples of marks were required to be submitted to the Chamberlain.
Hofmeister : 1: German: occupational name for the chamberlain in a noble household or an official with similar functions in a religious house from Middle High German hof ‘court household’ (originally ‘settlement manor farm’) + meister ‘master’.2: Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name (for supervisor of estate) or artificial name from German Hofmeister ‘chief supervisor of court or estate’ (compare 1 above).
Kamara : 1: West African (mainly Sierra Leone and Liberia): from the name of the Kamara clan of the Mandinka and subsequently Sierra Leonean Temne and Limba peoples possibly ultimately derived from Arabic qamar ‘moon’. Compare Camara 2.2: In some cases also Hungarian: from kamara ‘little room’ from Latin camera or camara ‘house room royal treasury’. It may also be an American shortened form of Hungarian Kamarás a status name for the treasurer of a court or of the royal household or alternatively for a chamberlain.
Kamer : 1: Dutch (also Van de Kamer): from kamer ‘room chamber’ hence either a status name for a chamberlain or a topographic name for someone who lived in a single-room dwelling.2: Swiss German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Kammer.
Kammer : 1: German: from Kammer ‘chamber storage chamber treasury’ hence an occupational name for a chamberlain or treasurer (see Kammerer).2: German (Kämmer): occupational name for a comb maker or a wool comber or fuller from an agent derivative of Middle High German kam(b) ‘comb’.3: Jewish (Ashkenazic): artificial name from German Kammer ‘chamber’.
Kemmer : German:: 1: variant of Kämmer (see Kammer 2).2: from a variant of Kammer ‘chamber store treasury’ hence an occupational name for a chamberlain or treasurer (see Kammerer).3: habitational name for someone from Kemme (Lower Saxony) or Kemmen (Brandenburg).
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
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