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I never thought of Gerber as being anything other than the name of the most well-known brand of baby food, and very likely the last name of whoever started the company, until I bought some Georgian tea in Germany. That is, tea from the Georgian Republic of what was at the time (1977) the Soviet Union. Georgian tea seemed to be the universially preferred variety in the SU; it's what was served on the trains when I traveled there in 1975. It was brewed with the samovars that were wood heated and present on every train car. I never drank tea until I traveled there and noticed the difference immediately when I returned to the United States. Many people told me Georgian tea has considerably less tannic acid than most kinds and when I saw some tea in Germany advertised as coming from "Grusien" I bought it and found that it was that nice brew I'd swilled by the cup on Russian trains. Then I noticed the label proclaiming "weniger Gerbsäure" and figured "Gerbsäure" must mean "tannic acid". And sure enough, the dictionary confirmed my suspicions.
I love having my suspicions confirmed.
From there it was only a short step to the realization that "Gerber" must mean "tanner", and that the last name "Tanner" was one of the many that were originally the name of a profession. So then I had to wonder how many others there were that I'd never realized what they were, and came up with Cooper, which is just English for Fassbinder. And Fleischer, and that's just Butcher when it's at home, or vice versa.
Imagine my delight when I realized there was a whole group of people I could mention this to who would not only not tell me to get a life, but who would probably be happy to add to the list. Of course, the more languages you have at your disposal the easier it is. Like Goncharov, the Russian author, whose name just happens to mean Potter.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Very interesting. My name is sort of occupational, since it meant "hunter' in one of the
Saxon dialects. I have relatives named "Thayer" which is a term for tanning leather.
Many others are more obvious. Walker, Dyer, Carpenter, ad infintum. But it would be
a fun thing to do to dig out some more of the less obvious ones, although I have no
inspiration as to how to begin.
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I'd be surprised if thisn't what they call a YART in these parts.
The Gerber that first came to my mind was the knife manufacturer! And that really makes sense that a tanner of hides would specialize in making knives - particularly skinning knives.
I wonder -- did B. F. Skinner tanned the hides of his students? I wonder if the cooper is barrel-chested, and Fleischer is a meathead.
Carpenter (Mary Chapin), Cartman (Eric), Driver (Minnie), Gardner (Martin), Farmer (Fannie), Hooker (prolly a fisherman), <Edward Gorey is a pretty descriptive name>, Smith (Willam et al), Wright (Robert), Baker (Bob), Appler (family I used to know), eiler (the hurrier?), Jager .... hmmm i'm wondering about names like Bishop and Priestly and Pope ... Monk! I like that new show ...
k
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A moderately obscure one I used to see was "Crowder" which may be Gaelic, but is
a musician, something like Fiedler, perhaps. At least a stringed instument something
like a violin.
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Carpal Tunnel
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...Hooker (prolly a fisherman)Yeah, lotta fun you are! 
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Kovalchek is Smith. Parbly Kowalski is, too. Boulanger isn't. It's Baker, if memory serves. My last name is a place name, dweller at or near a rock or crag. My mother's maiden name is stone worker.
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but.
The common surname "Taylor" is rendered unto Portuguese as alfaiate (Arabic derivation aside). Brazilians I knew thought that was pretty funny.
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And if you want to take it a step further back to just before traditional occupational names were created you could site Shakespeare as a soldier, warrior, or hunter. And Sawyer is an occupational name we seem to have forgotten for its original connotation these days. And there are several more common Anglicized or English names, which evade me at the moment, that I was surprised to learn were derived from occupations. If they bubble up in my memory I'll come back and post them. BTW, welcome birdfeed!  Intriguing post!
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Here's something interesting I just came across (and I seem to recall listing occupational surnames here once, but I don't think we ever really delved into their etymologies or cross-linguistic variations):
>ETYMOLOGY of the SURNAME "TUCKER"
and VARIATIONS
The surname of Tucker is from the old English word Tucker,--a trade; which word has now become, for the most part, obsolete. Fuller being more commonly used instead. Bailey[1] says it derived from the Teutonic noun tuck, signifying cloth; hence Tucker, a fuller of cloth. Mr. Lower[2] seems to take the same view of it; for, under the title of surnames derived from occupations and pursuits, he gives us, among many others, the following:--"Tucker, a fuller." Webster[3] says, "Tucker, a fuller; whence the name, (local)."
Our patronymic has had the misfortune of being spelt all manner of ways, as Tulker, Tuker, Toocker[4], Tooker, and Tucker. The former we find in very old manuscripts, and the latter is at present the most usual mode of writing it, though some families write it Tooker.
There is a name, MacTucker, which I cannot account for otherwise than by supposing that some individual or individuals bering our name, have, at some period, settled in either Ireland or Scotland, and there have acquired the prefix Mac, which is an Irish term, signifying son.
In many parts of England, Ireland, and, for aught I know, in America, we find the surnames Tuckey, Tukey, and Tookey. What may be their etymology, or whether they are the same with our cognomen, I am not prepared to say.
Tuckermann, or Tuckerman, and Tuckersham, are compound forms of the name. The latter is very probably derived from the name of some place or town; we seldom meet with it in this country.
Those families bearing the names of Tucke, Tuck, Tuk, Tuke, Touke, Towke, Tooke, &c. trace their origin from le Sire de Tuke, a celebrated knight, who came over to England with William the Conqueror, and fought at the battle of Hastings, in 1066. If such be the true derivation, then, although these names, having such a close resemblance to ours, have not, in fact, the least connexion with it.<
Footnotes
[1] Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 2 vols., 8 vol. London: 1766.
[2] Lower's Essays on English Surnames, 2 vols., 12 mo. London: 1849.
[3] Webster's English Dictionary, 8vo. New-York: 1847.
[4] New-York City Directory for 1850-1.
The above text is from the introduction in "A Genealogical and Historical Account of the Descendants of Henry Tucker, by George H. Tucker, M.D., June, 1861
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And here's an intersting look at the general etymological gestation of British surnames (get a load of what Dickens actually means! )...and, to the Davids among us, look at all the derivations "David" spawned): http://www.familychronicle.com/british.htmAnd it has this to say about occupational names: >OCCUPATIONS Occupational surnames are self-explanatory: Barber, Plumber, Baker, etc. Some apparently obvious occupational names aren't what they may seem, however. A Farmer did not work in agriculture but collected taxes, and Banker is not an occupational surname at all, meaning "dweller on a hillside".<
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