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.

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.

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

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.

...Hooker (prolly a fisherman)

Yeah, lotta fun you are!

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.

but.
The common surname "Taylor" is rendered unto Portuguese as alfaiate (Arabic derivation aside). Brazilians I knew thought that was pretty funny.

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!

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

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.htm

And 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".<

The Origin of Hundred Surnames

The Chinese surnames are traditionally placed in a certain order. They were arranged in the form of a poem that schoolchildren would memorize. The first 408 characters correspond to single character surnames that existed during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The next 60 characters correspond to 30 double character surnames of that period. Additional surnames follow.

Chart here:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3919/hundred.html

The anthropologist Colin Turnbull spent some time living with Pygmies in the Ituri Forest. When asked to explain his name he told them that it came from an ancestor who had stopped a bull from attacking the king. The king awarded his rescuer with the surname Turnbull. The Pygimies thought this was the funniest thing they had ever heard and awarded him the Pygmy name meaning His Father Killed An Animal.

"Like Goncharov, the Russian author, whose name just happens to mean Potter."

Although I feel compelled to say, lest someone catch me out on this first, it really means Potters. The singular noun meaning potter is gonchar, and goncharov is the genitive plural.

And that reminds me of Rachmaninov. That's not a profession surname, but "Al Rahman" is one of the 99 Arabic names of God. It means "the merciful one", I happen to know by way of one of my co-workers who is Iraqi. His name, Hikmat, means wisdom, and Al Hakim, the wise one, is another of the 99 names. I have wondered many times, but can't figure out how to prove it, whether the composer had some kind of Arabic origins. It wouldn't be surprising for a Russian.

"Kovalchek is Smith."

In Russian, it's the guy that shoes horses, a farrier. "Smith" is "kuznets". Or Kuznetsov, once it gets made into the genitive plural that language seems to prefer for family names that aren't adjectives, like Tolstoi, "the fat guy". Kovalchek is Ukrainian, perhaps?

Ooh! Ooh! My CDROM version of American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition (hereinafter referred to as AHD4 for the sake of brevity) tells me what maybe I should have seen already, that the word "farrier" ultimately comes from Latin "ferrum", meaning iron.

Chapman is an itinerant salesman, touring the villages with his chap-bag full of needles and pins, lace, ribbons, small toys and simple books (chap-books).
A Badger was much the same, but tended to work in towns, where he had to apply for a badge to prove that he was an accredited door-to-door sales person, rather than just a mendicant.
The same name can also apply to a pauper on poor-relief, who also was made to wear a badge in some places.

Here is a list with comprehensive inter-lingual etymologies: (if anyone can find the link to the complete list beyong the I-O I'd appreciate it...I tried and gave up):

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/4crests/surmeanio.html

Frm the link:

>Kasparek is a Polish diminutive form (if you remove the diacritical marks from the Czech version, it is also the Czech form) of the German and Polish patronymic name Kaspar, from the given name which originally meant "treasurer" in Persian. It is supposed to have been one of the three Magi's names and gained popularity in Europe after the 12th century. Variations include Kasper, Kesper, Casper (German); Kasparski, Kasperski, Kasper, Kaszper, Sperski (Polish). Cognate forms include Jaspar, Jasper, Jesper (Low German); Jesper (Flemish); Jasper (English); Kaspar, Kasper (Czech); Gaspar (Hungarian); Casperii, Gasperi, Gaspero, Gasparri, Gasparro, Gaspardo, Gaspardi, Gasbarri, Parri (Italian).

>Kusnerek is a Slavic diminutive variation of the German occupational name Kurschner (umlaut over the U) from the Middle High German word kursen = fur garment, which described the man who worked as a furrier. Kurssner, Kierschner, Korschner are variations. Kusnierz is a Polish cognate; Kushnir is found in the Ukraine, Kurshner is a Jewish form Anglicized from German, Kirschner, Kirsner, Kerschner, Kersner are other Jewish cognates.

Oh, I've been found out!

Maria Gasparri

I wonder if Luther (as in Martin) is related to luthier, one who makes lutes, violins and other stringed instruments?

Geez, do I have to do all the work for youse guys when you're just a click away from a little knowledge and a little chuckle...well, okay, then, here ya go...(from the British Family Chronicle link):

>The suffix "kin" can be used in surnames as a diminutive - so Tomkin is "Little Thomas", Wilkin is "Little William" and Perkin is "Little Peter". Similarly, Bartlett is Little Bartholomew, Dickens is the son of Little Dick and Philpott is Little Philip. Indeed, a Christian name can be altered over time. The name David, for example, has become: Davey, Davids, Dowell, Davidson, Davidge, Davie, Davies, Davis, Davison, Dayson, Davy, Davys, Daw, Dawe, Dawes, Dawkes, Dawkins, Daws, Dawson, Day, Davitt, Dowson, Dowd, Dowden, and Dowling. <

So, now, if you know anybody named Dickens, you can be the first to splain the semantics of their name for them!

Wait a minute! Davidge!!? Nooooo! Say it ain't so!

Dear WO'N: One diminutive I have mentioned before. " -cock" as in John Hancock, meant John Llittlejohn.
I am distantly related to the author of "Little Women", whose father got tired of having jokes made
about his name Alcock, meaning Little Al that he changed it to Alcott.

WO'N, Go to: http://store.yahoo.com/4crests/
Scroll down past all the pictures to about two thirds of the way down the scroll bar and hit 'ndex'. Wait for that to open and scroll right down almost to the bottom of the contents list where you will find listings for the other letters described as 'Surname Meanings A-D' etc. The general 'Surname Meanings' heading is useless.

link to other names

Thanks, dxb!

Though it doesn't look like it, my name, Remington, is actually from the Hebrew profession of preparing small snacks. Noshimers were common throughout the middle ages, but the name mutated to notchimer in Germany and thence to notjimer or notgimer in England.

It was there that my many times great grandfather, Det Notgimer was born. His severe dyslexia resulted in the penultimate shift, from Det Notgimer to Ted Remigton. We still don't know where the middle n in Remington came from.

Oh! I know! Juan put it there!

"N" of story!