Origin
Bank : 1: German Dutch and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German or Middle Low German banc or Yiddish bank ‘bench table counter’ in any of various senses e.g. a metonymic occupational name for anyone whose work required a bench or counter for example a butcher baker court official or money changer. The surname of German is also found in Poland and in Czechia.2: Danish and Swedish: topographic name from bank ‘(sand)bank’ or a habitational name from a farm named with this word.3: Danish and Swedish: from bank ‘noise’ hence a nickname for a loud or noisy person. Compare Bang.4: Danish: habitational name from the German placename Bänkau.5: English: topographic name from Middle English banke (Old Norse banke) ‘bank hillside’ or a habitational name from any of the many places so called.6: Irish: adopted for Ó Bruacháin ‘descendant of Bruachán’ a byname apparently meaning ‘large-bellied’. This name has also been Anglicized as Banks as if from Irish bruach ‘bank’.7: Dutch: from the personal name Bank recorded in North Holland province a vernacular of Bancras from Pancratius (see Pankratz).8: Hungarian (Bánk): from a diminutive of Bán (see Ban).
Borland : 1: Scottish: habitational name from any of several places called Bor(e)land or Bordland in Dumfriesshire Galloway Fife and Perthshire which are named with Old or Middle English bord ‘board table’ + land ‘land’ i.e. land that supplied the lord's table in other words ‘home farm’.2: English: variant of Burland.
Chequer : from Middle English cheker an aphetic form of Middle English Anglo-Norman French escheker originally a chessboard later the table that gave name to the king's exchequer; a table for accounts; the Court of Exchequer. As a surname it probably denoted a clerk in the exchequer although Laurence de Scaccario (1279 Hundred Rolls) who has left his name in Chequers (Bucks) was no doubt one of the leading officials of the Exchequer.
Chick : 1: English: from Middle English chike ‘young fowl’ (a shortened form of chicken) applied as a metonymic occupational name for someone who bred poultry for the table or as a nickname from the same word used as a term of endearment.2: Altered form of English Cheek.3: Chinese: variant of Chik.
Cockshott : from Middle English cokshote cokshete cokshute ‘place where woodcocks dart’. Nets were stretched in such places to catch the birds for the food table so the surname may have belonged to someone who trapped woodcocks for the lord of the manor. Cockshutt Cockshoot etc. appear as minor place-names and field names in many counties but the modern surname is primarily from Lancs. According to McKinley an early bearer of the surname is recorded at Ightenhill near Padiham (Lancs) in the 14th century. The Lancs surname probably migrated to the Skipton area of WR Yorks by the 16th century (Redmonds Dictionary of Yorks Surnames). It is sometimes pronounced Coeshot.
Ewer : English (Hertfordshire Middlesex and Buckinghamshire): occupational name from Middle English ewere a shortened form of ewerer ‘servant who supplied guests at the table with water to wash their hands’. The word ewerer is itself a derivative of Old French and Middle English ewer ‘water pitcher’ also recorded in Middle English as ower. Compare Lower.
Gabel : 1: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a maker and seller of forks from Middle High German gabel(e) German Gabel ‘fork’. The reference is to any of the various pieces of agricultural equipment denoted by this word for example hay forks shearlegs etc. Table forks were not used in Germany for eating before the 16th century.2: German: topographic name for someone who lived near a fork in a road or river or owned a forked piece of land from the German word (see 1 above) in this transferred sense.3: German: habitational name from any of the places called Gabel in Germany in Schleswig Thuringia Silesia and in particular in Bohemia which derive their name from Slavic jablo ‘apple tree’.4: German: from a short form of Gabriel.5: German (Gäbel): see Gaebel.
Gavin : 1: Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gábháin or Ó Gáibhín both of which are derived from diminutives of gábhadh ‘want’ or ‘danger’ (the second being the more likely meaning here).2: Scottish and northern English: from the personal name Gavin Scottish form of English Gawain and French Gauvain. The name was introduced into English from French versions of the Arthurian romances where this name was borne by one of the knights of the Round Table brother of Galahad and Mordred and a nephew of Arthur. It has been taken to be an adaptation of the Welsh name Gwalchmei perhaps ‘hawk of the plain’.3: Scottish: shortened form of McGavin which is believed to be an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gobhann ‘son of the smith’.4: Spanish: Castilianized form of Aragonese Gabín a habitational name from Gabín a place in Huesca province Aragon.5: French: variant of Galvin or Gauvain cognates of 2 above. Alternatively perhaps a nickname related to Old Occitan gavina ‘seagull’.6: Americanized form of Polish Gawin.
Kavan : Czech (also Kaván): from a vernacular form of Gawan German form of the English personal name of Celtic origin Gawain borne by one of the knights of the Round Table (see Gavin 2).
Lamprey : English: nickname from Middle English lamprey ‘lamprey’ (Old English lamprede) an eel-like fish which was a highly prized food among the upper classes in medieval England especially in pies and required as payment of rent by some lords of manors. The nickname may have been given to someone who provided lampreys for the lord's table or who resembled a lamprey perhaps a slippery fellow or a lecher.
Lurie : 1: English: nickname denoting a sergeant or groom of the ewery from Middle English ewerye a room where ewers of water table linen etc. were kept; compare Ewer.2: Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Loria.
Napier : 1: English and Scottish: occupational name from Old French napier nappier nap(p)er(er) ‘one who looks after the napery or table-linen’ a derivative of Old French nappe ‘table-cloth napkin’. In Middle English Napier and Nap(p)er might also have denoted a maker of table cloths though this sense has not been recorded.2: English: alternatively an occupational name from Nap(p)er from an unrecorded Middle English word for one who makes naps i.e. drinking cups or chalices (Middle English nap Old English hnæp). Napper could also be a nickname from Middle English nappere ‘one who sleeps or naps’ though this is the least likely of the alternatives.3: American shortened form of Polish Napierala or a similar name.
Peyman : English (southern):: 1: from Middle English pe pey pay ‘peacock’ + man perhaps a nickname denoting a dandy or an occupational name for someone who bred peacocks for a rich man's garden or dinner table. Compare Peacock Peabody.2: alternatively the surname could mean ‘Pey's servant’ from the Middle English personal name Pey + man ‘man’.
Schrandt : North German: probably a variant of Schrage an occupational name for a butcher or baker selling at a stall in a market from Middle High German schrande schrange ‘market stall table counter’.
Shewbridge : English (Kent): variant of Shoebridge apparently a nickname altered from early modern English shew-bread a reference to ‘the twelve loaves that were placed every Sabbath 'before the Lord' on a table beside the altar of incense and at the end of the week were eaten by the priests alone’ first recorded in Tyndale's Bible translation (1530). The earliest name-form may be a reinterpretation sparked by the contemporary interest in Bible-translation; it also may stand as an intermediate form between the modern name and an original unlocated placename in southeastern England perhaps Shoebury (Essex) or possibly the recurring minor placename Shovelbrede ‘shovel's breadth' as in Shulbrede (Sussex) but both these possible origins offer phonological difficulties.
Shoebridge : apparently altered from early Modern English shew-bread ‘the twelve loaves that were placed every Sabbath 'before the Lord' on a table beside the altar of incense and at the end of the week were eaten by the priests alone’ (OED) first recorded in Tyndale's Bible translation (1530). The earliest name-form may be genuine but a reinterpretation sparked by the contemporary interest in Bible-translation; it may stand as an intermediate form between the modern name and an original unlocated place-name in SE England perhaps Shoebury (Essex). Compare Thomas Shewbery 1571 in IGI (Woodchurch Kent) or possibly the recurring minor place-name Shovelbrede 'shovel's breadth' as in Shulbrede (Sussex) but both these possible origins offer phonological difficulties.
Stoloff : Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): westernized form of Stolov from Slavic stol (Polish stól) ‘table’ most probably a metonymic occupational name for a carpenter who made tables but possibly also for a servant at table which is the meaning of the cognate Polish surname Stołowy.
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
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